Can you use audio from a presidential speech for personal use?

While the speech itself is public domain, the broadcast of the speech may by subject the the copyright of the network. You should consult with a qualified IP attorney to give you complete analysis. T

This is a tricky question. Generally, a government cannot copyright its own work (there are some exceptions). However, a president is an individual serving in a public office and can certainly copyright anything he or she creates that is not part of that job. Furthermore, most presidents now transfer their work to his presidential library sometime after leaving office. Those materials are usually accessible to the public but at a price the income helps keep the library open. Therefore, it's best to contact either the president's office or his library to get permission to use the speech.

The words of the presidential speech will be public, but the recording will belong to whoever owns that particular sound recording, which is usually the entity that made recording, such as a new station. However, if hundreds of recordings of the same speech were made at the same time, I do not know how any of them could identify their recording to make a copyright claim. Also, not sure they could make any claim as to their recording of the speech being original or unique, which would make it qualify for copyright protection. It seems like the answer is that you are free to use this, but you should still check with a lawyer about exactly which speech from which source. It is always best to get your own personal legal help rather than relying on a general info answer like this. Also, please be aware that this answer does not apply to all public figures. For example, the family of Martin Luther King, Jr., made copyright and right of publicity claims on his speeches. They wanted to make money from his writings because, when he was killed, he left behind a family to support. However, this has hampered the spread of his ideas and words.