MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech is copyrighted. Share it anyway.

January 18th is Internet Freedom Day, the anniversary of the largest protest in Internet history. January 21st is Dr Martin Luther King Day, a day that we celebrate one of the greatest freedom activists of all time. Celebrate both by engaging in a small act of civil disobedience and share this video of Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Dr. King’s call for racial justice is as relevant today as it was in 1963. But it's copyrighted, and EMI controls the rights to publish it. Unabridged versions have been taken off YouTube before. Our broken copyright laws say it's illegal to share this video. As Dr. King once said, "...one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

#InternetFreedomDay

#MLKDay

Fight for the Future

Today, January 18th, is the first anniversary of the defeat of SOPA, the Internet censorship bill.

And this weekend, we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is as relevant today as it was in 1963.

To honor his legacy as a freedom-fighter, we’re asking everyone to share this full video of his historic speech.

But “I Have a Dream” is copyrighted. So sharing it is illegal.

If SOPA had passed, you could’ve gone to jail for it.

And entire websites could have been shut down just for linking to it.

King’s call for racial justice is too important to be censored by broken copyright laws.

Celebrate your freedom. Share this video now.

["One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]

A. PHILLIP RANDOLPH: At this time I have the honor to present to you

the moral leader of our nation,

I have the pleasure to present to you:

Dr. Martin Luther King, J-R!

[crowd cheering]

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: I am happy to join with you today

in what will go down in history

as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

[crowd clapping]

Five score years ago,

a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today,

signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

This momentous decree came

as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves

who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.

It came as a joyous day break

to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later,

the Negro still is not free.

One hundred years later,

the l- the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation

and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later,

the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty

in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

One hundred years later,

[crowd clapping]

the N- the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society

and finds himself an exile in his own land.

And so we have come here today

to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check.

When the architects of our republic

wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,

they were signing a promissory note

to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men;

yes, black men as well as white men;

would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citzens of color are concerned.

Instead of honoring this sacred obligation,

America has given the Negro people a bad check.

A check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

[crowd cheering]

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

[crowd laughing]

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand, the riches of freedom

and the security of justice.

[crowd cheering]

We have also come to this hallowed spot

to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.

This is no time

to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

[crowd clapping]

Now is the time

to make real the promises of democracy.

Now is the time

to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now is the time

[crowd clapping]

to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Now is the time

[crowd clapping]

to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation

to overlook the urgency of the moment.

This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent

will not pass

until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning.

Those who hope

that the Negro needed to blow off steam

and will now be content

will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

[crowd clapping]

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America

until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation

until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people

who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.

In the process of gaining our rightful place,

we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom

by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

[cries of "my lord"; crowd cheers]

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

We must not allow our creative protest

to degenerate into physical violence.

Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights

of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy,

which has engulfed the Negro community,

must not lead us to a distrust of all white people.

For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today,

have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

[crowd cheering]

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk,

we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,

"When will you be satisfied?"

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the vic- victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

We can never be satisfied,

as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,

cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

[crowd cheering]

We cannot be satisfied

as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied

as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating, "For Whites Only."

[crowd cheering]

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote, and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

[crowd cheering]

No,

no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls downs like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

[crowd cheering]

I am not mi-, unmindful

that some of you have come here

out of great trials and tribulations.

Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.

Some of you have come from areas where your quest, quest for freedom

left you battered by the storms of persecution

and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering.

Continue to work with the faith

that unearned suffering

is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi.

Go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia,

go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities,

knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends,

[crowd cheering]

so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow,

I still have a dream.

It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.

I have a dream

that one day

this nation will rise up

and live out the true meaning of its creed:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

[crowd clapping]

I have a dream

that one day on the red hills of Georgia,

the sons of former slaves and the f- sons of former slave owners,

will bay- be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day,

even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the... heat of... injustice,

sweltering with the heat of oppression,

will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream

that my four little children

will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

[crowd clapping]

I have a dream that one day,

down in Alabama with its vicious racists,

with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification;

one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

[crowd clapping]

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,

and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight,

and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope.

This is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith,

we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith,

we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation

into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith,

we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,

knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day.

[crowd clapping]

This will be the day when all of God's children

will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation,

this must become true.

So let freedom ring

from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring

from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that.

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi!

[crowd cheering] From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And when this happens,

[crowd continues cheering]

when we allow freedom ring,

when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,

from every state and every city,

we will be able to speed up that day

when all of God's children,

black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,

will be able to join hands and sing, in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty! We are free at last!"

[crowd cheering]