Today is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic “I have a dream” speech. The excellent Walter Olson of overlawyered.com asks, “Did you know MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech is copyrighted?” It is, and it won’t enter the public domain until the year 2038. Nick Gillepsie at drum.com tells the full story here.
prior probability asks a deeper question: do we even need copyright law? Would MLK have decided against giving his ‘I have a dream speech’ if he knew ex ante that such a speech were not protected by copyright law?
prior probability 
I think MLK would have given the speech regardless of any copyright law.
Exactly … and that’s why we don’t really need copyright law for political speeches