[pdb-discuss] Mmmmovies

Thu Oct 5 08:51:25 UTC 2006

Rob Myers wrote:
> I've been looking at public domain films on archive.org and 
> publicdomaintorrents.com. Wired have just published their list of the 
> best public domain movies to download. And the thing that has struck me 
> is that despite our 50 year expiry for film copyright there are 
> virtually no British films in the archives.
> 
> Is this because movie archive sites tend to be American, or does the 
> music score copyright affect matters if the score wasn't work for hire 
> or something? There are a few British movies in archive.org, but there 
> are many classics that are older than 50 years that are conspicuous by 
> their absence.
> 
> So what are the legal issues around this, and if they are not major 
> should we start looking for copies of The Red Shoes and Passport To 
> Pimlico to upload? :-)

My understanding is that films get the full life+70 treatment (as works 
for hire in the US they may get slightly less, i.e. 95 years). This was 
a result of the duration directive of 1995. Previously film copyright 
was a neighbouring right and had the same length as recording right in 
sound recordings, i.e. fifty years. However that directive increase it 
to death + 70 (both for new *and* old films -- great!). Furthermore as 
Cornish and Llewellyn note:

 > Moreover, the very considerable investment in which goes into major 
film productions has held to justify a special way of measuring lives. 
To guard against the consequences of the director's early death [god 
forbid: we'll only get a 70 or 80 years not 120], the longest life among 
"persons connected with the film" is taken; and these include not only 
the principal director but the author of the screenplay, the author of 
the dialogue and the composer of any specifically created film score. 
[10-45]

They go on to point out the dramatic effect this has on, say, a 
documentary shot in the 1930s which would have gone out of copyright in 
the 1980s but now may not do so until 2050.

Thus other than very special cases -- see e.g. BFI contributions to the 
Creative Archive or special government material such as that from DfT -- 
most film is likely to be in copyright for quite a while yet.

~rufus