Right around the time I finished producing the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland audiobook, I was watching an Extra Credits episode (I'm a bad researcher and did not note the video's URL.) where they used one of Tenniel's illustrations right next to a Disney clip. It made me wonder: How does anyone determine whether or not a movie or television show is in the Public Domain?
The obvious (to me) answer was: They'd go by the current copyright laws and the last known clear copyright holder.
The actual answer, it turns out is far more complicated, simply because of the changing nature of copyright law (although being unable to identify who holds the copyright free and clear also causes headaches. This is such a thorny issue, in fact, that the first time movies were solidly acknowledged as being in the Public Domain was when a large cache of media was released into the Public Domain at the beginning of 2019, including some of the earliest movies and television shows in existence. (For years, the best resource we really had access to was this website, which wasn't the most up-to-date discussion on the matter: http://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/movie-public-domain/)
Even with the release of many movies into the Public Domain, there is still some confusion over whether or not they can be handled like other media artifacts in the Public Domain. Emilio Estevez learned this recently when he included Public Domain footage in a new movie, and Universal somehow forgot the footage was in the Public Domain. (Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190420/23485242053/emilio-estevez-uses-some-public-domain-footage-film-so-universal-studios-forces-original-public-domain-footage-offline.shtml)
While this wasn't really meant to become a discussion of movies in the Public Domain, it really adds an interesting dimension to the conversation...especially when you start talking about certain content filters. Honestly, though, I think looking at how copyright laws have affected movies and television is a really interesting study in both copyright law and how it affects artifacts over time.
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Copyright for Creatives
Non-FictionWe hear a lot about copyright...when it's coming into play. Celebrities and YouTube Personalities recently sued a game for using their trademark dance without permission. And then a bunch of old stories, poetry, and movies were released into the Pu...
