[78-L] O/T Films

[David Pierce]

In a report for the Library of Congress published last year, I documented
the fate of one category of films - those from the silent era. "The
Survival of American Silent Feature Films: 1912–1929" can be downloaded for
free from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub158

The report discusses why most films are lost and many of the reasons that a
small proportion survive.

David Pierce


On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 7:50 AM, Elizabeth McLeod <
lizmcl at midcoast.com.invalid> wrote:

>
> For as long as the films were under copyright, the content belonged to the
> studio that originated it, regardless of who posessed the physical artifact
> of the film. That remains true of "lost films" today -- if the studio that
> created them renewed copyrights, they still own the productions, even if no
> physical copies exist. If somebody turns up a complete copy of "Gold
> Diggers
> of Broadway" tomorrow, for example, they will have no legal right to
> exhibit
> or otherwise exploit it because the production still belongs to Warner
> Bros,
> which renewed the copyright in 1957. Because it was under copyright when
> the
> copyright revisions of 1976 were enacted, it remains under copyright today.
>
> Films that weren't renewed because their originating studios were out of
> business when the initial 28-year term expired would have probably fallen
> into the public domain, assuming there were no underlying story rights that
> could be claimed by the heirs of the original author or some such. The
> Dawson City find would be all public domain anyway, since with few
> exceptions all American-made films prior to 1923 have been ruled PD.
>
> It wasn't uncommon for theatrical film exchanges to sell used film reels to
> manufacturers of toy projectors. These reels would be cut into 60 foot
> lengths and these clips would be packaged in little metal cans and sold
> along with the toy projectors for home use without regard for fire safety.
> It was even possible for consumers to buy entire 1000-foot reels of used
> film from mail order companies -- well into the 1930s the Johnson Smith
> novelty catalog listed film reels. "No choice of subject, all reels shipped
> by Railway Express." These sales did not include the right to exhibit the
> reels for profit, and may explain why random bits and pieces of "lost
> films"
> sometimes turn up in attics and garages with no explanation for how they
> got
> there.
>
> Elizabeth
>
>
> On 8/4/14 6:21 AM, "Julian Vein" <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>
> > Despite what one of them said, there was no real environmental
> > consideration given to how the films were to be disposed of, no official
> > policy of any sort. No concerns about pollution or the poisoning of the
> > water table etc. "Out of sight, out of mind" seems to have been the
> > philosophy of the day.
> >
> > The other question is who became the legal owner of the film if the
> > distributor didn't want it back?
> >
> >       Julian Vein
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