On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Stephen Filler <sfiller[_at_]nylawline.com> wrote:
>
> Is anyone aware of any resources in dealing with the issue of whether
> particular movie stills are public domain? I have heard it said that
> many older photographs are public domain because the studios owned the
> rights as work for hire and never registered them. Does anyone know
> if this is correct as a general matter, or whether it can be stated
> categorically that all stills from a particular studio before a
> particular date are public domain?
Many old movie stills probably were works for hire created by staff photographers of the studios. But this doesn't mean they had to be registered. If they were published before 1989 they had to contain a copyright notice. Unnoticed published photos may have entered the public domain, but there are several exceptions to this rule.
The copyright in unpublished stills that were works made for hire lasts for 120 years from the date of creation. Published stills are protected for 95 years from the date of publicaiton.
Howevever, stills published between 1923-1963 had to be renewed by filing a renewal with the Copyright Office during the 28th year of publication or they entered the public domian. This probably represents the only large body of PD stills (other than those created before 1923). You need to research copyright office records to determine if a renewal was filed.
Stephen Fishman
<sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com>
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