Talk: It's a Wonderful Life
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I was doing a little websearching, and there are many references to this movie's public domain status. Seems pretty well established to me. But then I came across this tidbit:
" Only recently (1994, to be exact), when NBC obtained exclusive rights to the film, has the Christmastime tide of broadcasts been stemmed. "
(from http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/i/its_wonderful.html)
Wha? I was under the impression that public domain status was forever, and that there was no way to place a public domain work back into copyright (derivative works, sure, but not the original). Does anyone know what's going on here? Bryan Derksen, Tuesday, July 2, 2002
- Some lawyers argue that the movie itself is a derivative work, and for that reason is not on the public domain. See http://www.film-center.com/canishow.html
I've heard the same thing. What I've heard--and I'm not sure it's true--is that Ted Turner acquired the last physical copies, had the negatives colorized, copyrighted the colorized version, then desaturated them, in effect creating a new copyrightable b/w work. Sounds sleazy to me, and also a lot of damn work just to give everyone else the finger. I'm not at all sure that that is what did in fact happen. Koyaanis Qatsi, Tuesday, July 2, 2002
the movie was virtually unknown until it fell into the public domain in 1974
"Virtually unknown"? It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director! -- Zoe
I deleted that part. I still haven't seen the film--shameful admission, really, for a film lover. Anyway, here's the excised bits in case someone has the evidence to back it up (I suspect the author meant that it was not popular in some specific era some time after it originally came out--but I don't know) Koyaanis Qatsi:
- However, the movie was virtually unknown until it fell into the public domain in 1974, after which it was played frequently by PBS television stations.
Seen it on a ton of Canadian stations, too.
What Turner did was perfectly legal - by creating a "remastered" black and white version he started a fresh copyright term on it - another example is the recently remasted Beatles recordings - while the "original" recordings made in the '60s will soon be public domain the remastered versions have only just started their period of copyright!
Note that this is only the copyright in the *recordings*. The copyright in the *songs* (i.e. the words and music) remains in force for 75 years after the death of the last contributor. So George Harrison songs will be out of copyright in 73 years time, John Lennon's songs (incl. Imagine) will be out of copyright in 2055, but Lennon-McCartney songs will not be out of copyright until 75 years after McCartney's death.
210.49.196.232 07:45 Jan 10, 2003 (UTC)
According to an article on Slate.com (http://slate.msn.com/id/1004242/), Republic was able to regain control of the copyright in 1994 because of a couple factors. They own the copyright to the original story, they didn't let that one lapse. And they own the copyright on the musical score. Technically, they don't have copyright over the movie, and it would be possible to cut up the scenes into a different story, replace the music, and publish such a Frankenstein's monster of a film.
Ted Turner's copyright was only for the colorized version, not any black and white version derived from a colorized version. Ironically, during the colorization fad of the 80's, many TV stations paid copyright fees to Turner to show the color version, rather than show the superior black and white one for free.
Swedenborgian angel
Does the concept of an angel as a former living human come from the Swedenborgians?
