Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v CBS, Inc. 194 F.3d 1211 (11th Cir. 1999) King gave a famous speech that was widely reported in the newspapers and broadcast on radio and television. Copies of the speech were given to members of the press. One month after he gave the speech, King secured a copyright under the Copyright Act of 1909. He immediately sued to enjoin unauthorized sale of recordings of the speech. Twenty years later, a tv station, CBS, made a documentary about King and used the video they recorded of King's speech. King's estate sued for copyright infringement. CBS argued that under the Copyright Act of 1909, if you publish a work without filing for a copyright first, you lose protection of that work. Since King waited a month to file, he missed his chance. The Trial Court found for CBS. King appealed. The Trial Court found that since the speech had "wide an unlimited reproduction and dissemination" concomitant to the speech, it must be considered public domain. The Appellate Court reversed. The Court noted that under the Copyright Act of 1909, an author received a common-law copyright protection at the time of creation. However, when general publication occurred, the author forfeited his work to the public domain unless he converted his common-law copyright into a Federal statutory copyright. The term general publication was defined as "when a work was made available to members of the public at large without regard to their identity or what they intended to do with the work." As opposed to limited publication, where you just pass it around to a few friends. The Court found that delivering the speech was not a general publication. The Court found that a general publication only occurs if tangible copies are distributed, or if the work is exhibited in a manner to permit unrestricted copying. The Court looked to case law and found that distribution to the news media does not count as general publication. See Public Affairs Assoc., Inc. v. Rickover (284 F.2d 262 (1960)). The Court found that a public performance of a work does not constitute publication. Note that under the modern law (the Copyright Act of 1976), an author gets a copyright automatically, they don't have to file anything.