Straw-cleaner - Smiling Through It All

Okay, since the Spielberg post blew up, I need to clear up something because I can see in the notes that pple think that Spielberg owns the rights to MLK speeches and I don't want to spread any misinformation. This is what the Vice article says:

vice.com

The Bizarre Reason You Rarely Hear Martin Luther King Quotes in Movies

Steven Spielberg has received criticism for buying the film rights to MLK's speeches, and further controversy stems from King's estate.

In 2009, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks company paid the estate for film rights to King's words, along with his life rights, which allow a person or company to make content based on an individual's story. DreamWorks has yet to produce or direct Spielberg's planned King biopic, but the rights have caused complications for numerous filmmakers. (Neither Spielberg's literary agent nor King's estate returned Broadly's request for comment.)

This means that while the MLK estate still owns the original copyright for the speeches, Spielberg actually bought and now owns the film rights to MLK's speeches. However, this doesn't erase how problematic it it is since this means that Spielberg is the only filmmaker legally allowed to use MLK's speeches word for word in his films. A White filmmaker is essentially holding onto the film rights, at the expense of Black filmmakers. The article talks about how Ava Duvernay had to write original speeches from scratch for Selma.

King has received only one major biopic, 2014's Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay [...] Instead of using King's speeches, DuVernay wrote original monologues that sounded like soliloquies the civil rights leader could have given. [...] When asked about the changes in 2014, DuVernay told the Washington Post, "We knew those rights are already gone. They're with Spielberg."

The article also mentioned that Spielberg bought life rights and according to this Forbes article, this means that Spielberg also bought the rights to MLK's life.

By paying the Estate for the film rights to Dr. King's speeches along with life rights, Spielberg obtained unprecedented filmmaking access to Dr. King’s life — supported by Dr. King’s extraordinary intellectual property (the right to use Dr. King’s actual words.)

Hope this clarifies everything!

- mod sodapop

I agree 100%

Bro absolutely COOKED with this.

‘I love being a girl’ and it’s just consumerism and conforming to beauty standards

More than 60% of the global population that are classified as the Phase 5 famine/catastrophe level of food insecurity and starvation are in the Gaza Strip right now, and that percentage is projected to increase to 95% by Februrary

ALERT: We’ve received several reports of the FBI visiting activists in response to their social media posts criticizing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We want you to #KnowYourRights if approached by federal law enforcement (🧵 thread)

The FBI’s discriminatory targeting of people who speak up for Palestinian rights on social media is an attempt to silence popular criticism of Israel. You have a right to speak up against genocide. You have a right to refuse to speak to FBI agents without an attorney present

Our partners at the @ADC have also documented a disturbing uptick FBI targeting and intimidation of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims since October: We have received multiple calls today regarding Palestinian nationals detained by ICE, and/or visited by the FBI. The FBI has also visited multiple mosques today, in different states, as well as Arab inmates. This is a troubling trend.

#KnowYourDamnRights: Know your rights if you’re ever approached by law enforcement! Read this booklet by our partners at

@theCCR “If An Agent Knocks”

Google Docs

If An Agent Knocks (Updated 2020)

And our partners at the @NLGnews 's Know Your Rights booklet for dealing with law enforcement: https://t.co/5scK7eb8Ba

You can read more about the increased reports of FBI harassment of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim community members in this article by

@theintercept :

The Intercept

FBI Targets Muslims and Palestinians in Wake of Hamas Attack, Civil Rights Advocates Warn

The domestic policing comes amid reports of harassment against Muslims and Palestinians around the country.