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Poster: RadioFreePeru Date: Dec 24, 2008 12:49pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

The copyright information belongs to the Jason Robards (1971) version, not the 1932 Lugosi version:
Check:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067457/companycredits

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Poster: billbarstad Date: Dec 24, 2008 3:35pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

Ah nuts! I'll have to re-upload it. Thanks!

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Poster: Blank Pictures Date: Jan 16, 2009 5:10am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

Hi all. Actually, I think you'll find that Murders in the Rue Morgue (Universal) is in copyright. Can't think of any Universal title (apart from the silents and 'Scarlet Street' that are PD).

Copyright was renewed by Universal in 1959. It's stated on the packaging of their VHS release and obviously can't be found at USCO/LOC website because it was before 1978.

Hope this helps!

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Poster: billbarstad Date: Jan 16, 2009 6:03am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

It was renewed 50 years ago...

How long does a copyright renewal last?

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Poster: Video-Cellar Date: Jan 16, 2009 6:20am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

Currently the renewal term on a US film is 67 years with a total copyright term of 95 years (28 years initial term plus 67 years renewal term).

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Poster: billbarstad Date: Jan 16, 2009 6:33am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

I've asked The Internet Archive to remove the film. I do the best I can to check whether films are under copyright. Thanks for your help.

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Poster: Video-Cellar Date: Jan 16, 2009 7:35am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

This film has been "rescued", to use a copyright owner's terminology, from the public domain twice. If the 1976/78 extention wasn't passed the film would have expired due to natural causes at the beginning of 1989 and if the subsequent Sonny Bono law hadn't passed it would have gone PD at the start of 2008. Instead, under the misguided and naive view that there will not be another "limited" extention on the copyright term of Mister Mouse's first outing and all subsequent copyrights, "Murders in the Rue Morgue" will not enter the US public domain until 2028. Where I live this film has been public domain for a quarter century. The earth has not opened up and swallowed the living. There have been no plagues. And the movie has never been released on video or DVD. Officially or otherwise.
This post was modified by Video-Cellar on 2009-01-16 15:35:01

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Poster: Blank Pictures Date: Jan 16, 2009 6:20am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

Works Originally Created and Published or Registered before January 1, 1978
Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published with a copyright notice or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form. In either case, the copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured.

During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal. The Copyright Act of 1976 extended the renewal term from 28 to 47 years for copyrights that were subsisting on January 1, 1978, making these works eligible for a total term of protection of 75 years.

Public Law 105-298, enacted on October 27, 1998, further extended the renewal term of copyrights still subsisting on that date by an additional 20 years, providing for a renewal term of 67 years and a total term of protection of 95 years.

In plain English, it's in Copyright. Hope this helps everyone! I mean, come on, who REALLY imagines that classic Universal horror is out of Copyright?!

I'm not here to be a spoil sport, I'm not one of those vigilante types, I was just hoping to clear things up a bit! It really annoys me, and the producers/distributors I know when we keep coming across things that are so obviously in Copyright with people (wishfully) thinking that their PD!

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Poster: Video-Cellar Date: Jan 16, 2009 8:14am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

There are loads of Universal pictures that have lapsed copyright due to non-renewal. some examples: My Man Godfrey 1936 The Devil's Party 1938 Prison Break 1938 Mutiny on the Blackhawk 1939 Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon 1943 The Woman in Green 1945 Terror By Night 1946 Dressed To Kill 1946 Borderline 1950 Mark of the Hawk 1958 To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 Charade (released with invalid notice and not renewed) 1963 And then theres the serials like: Perils of Pauline, Ace Drummond, Flash Gordon, Phantom Creeps, Buck Rogers, etc.
This post was modified by Video-Cellar on 2009-01-16 16:14:31

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Poster: billbarstad Date: Jan 16, 2009 2:14pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

I understand that Henry Mancini's music in 'Charade' is still under copyright, keeping the movie out of the public domain.

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Poster: Video-Cellar Date: Jan 16, 2009 7:57pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

That is right. Mancini's music remains in copyright. As such the music in the film is not public domain. Many studios and copyright holder's interpret a very specific supreme court ruling (Stewart v Abend) to be a general rule which in many ways it is not. Generally if the film is used with the original music Universal could send a C&D in good faith. But that is only if the film is exploited using the original music. Some crafty companies are lifting the copyright music and adding their own licenced or PD music tracks.

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Poster: Blank Pictures Date: Jan 16, 2009 8:56am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

OK I'm sorry I was a little hasty with that statement. But, as you'll see, not many Universals are PD.
Re: To Kill a Mockingbird, the screenplay and book remain in copyright so I doubt that's PD.

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Poster: Video-Cellar Date: Jan 16, 2009 8:32pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Wrong film !!!!

The film wasn't renewed, so the film as a copyrightable work is public domain. Whether or not the film can be freely exploited is a matter of interpretation of Stewart v Abend which is the main case that is cited by companies that want to forget their renewal mistakes. The interpretation issue is whether that decision simply gives successors in ownership (trusts, estates, etc) the right to revoke all past agreements and have full control of past licensed copyrights at renewal date, which is does. Or whether it splits the sum of a copyrightable work into its individual parts creating a class of "substantial part" or "underlying" copyright infringement in whole works (rather than the traditional protection against partial or derivative works.)
This post was modified by Video-Cellar on 2009-01-17 04:32:12