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I thought Criterion's The Most Dangerous Game was also public domain, no?

I thought My Man Godfrey is too.

I think that Most Dangerous Game, My Man Godfrey, as well as Charade are in the public domain in the USA. I don't know the status of Night Train to Munich. The fact it might be PD in the UK doesn't necessarily mean it's PD in the USA.

Why Criterion doesn't undertake efforts in regard to other PD movies out there may ultimately be a combination of the availability of elements and economics. In terms of money, the issue is likely how much should be invested in a new transfer for a PD title (such as One Eyed Jacks, for example, or Night of the Living Dead) when there are other versions available for five bucks at WalMart? There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who will want to save twenty bucks and go for the cheap version.

tojoed wrote:I am under the impression that "Night Train to Munich" is in the public domain, at least in the UK. Might that not apply in America?

Night Train to Munich is in copyright in the UK and will remain so until 2065, as the law stands now. It will remain in copyright in the US until 2035, as the law stands.

Okay, I was obviously mistaken. Do you know who owns the rights?

Night Train to Munich is obviously considered public domain in the US. There are like two dozen different editions on Amazon.com

The Gospel According to St.Mathew seems to be a situation where someone has come forward saying that they own the rights and the film is not in the PD, thus these dvds are illegal forcing all these companies to pull the title from the market in the last few weeks.

tojoed wrote:Okay, I was obviously mistaken. Do you know who owns the rights?

I can only guess that it's Fox. I would like to know if this is true. Perhaps someone from Criterion can enlighten us.

ianungstad wrote:Night Train to Munich is obviously considered public domain in the US. There are like two dozen different editions on Amazon.com

I was only wishing to express whether the film was ACTUALLY in the public domain, not whether it is PERCEIVED to be in the public domain. I can only see three listings on Amazon.com, Criterion's, a bootleg for sale and a bootleg that has been (perhaps due to the threat of litigation) withdrawn.

Night Train to Munich was previously considered in the public domain in the US (probably after 1968, when the copyright must not have been renewed), but Fox (who distributed the film theatrically in 1940) used the provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act to reclaim the rights in 1997.

Under URAA, thousands of films had their copyright restored, which is partly why all those vendors who used to sell VHS dupes of 16mm prints of foreign films went out of business. Unfortunately for us, that meant that most of those films became completely unavailable in the US.

Interesting bit about Charade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charade_(f ... ain_status

Jun-Dai wrote:Interesting bit about Charade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charade_(f ... ain_status

I'm sure someone lost their job over that. I don't think that is the law anymore, however.

Jun-Dai wrote:Interesting bit about Charade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charade_(f ... ain_status

Whether or not the claims about the PD status are accurate, that whole wikipedia entry is without references and the claim about the film being available at the Internet Archive is no longer true.

Edit: This is an interesting resource re: copyright/public domain.

Tribe wrote:

Jun-Dai wrote:Interesting bit about Charade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charade_(f ... ain_status

I'm sure someone lost their job over that. I don't think that is the law anymore, however.

Lost their job, phooey. I bet George Romero punched Walter Reade Jr in the jaw.