# I loves me some $1 Wal-Mart DVDs. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2006, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148 "2006-09-18T05:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/21 "2006-09-20T03:42:44Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] I love public domanin dvds. They’re great for the nights I can’t fall asleep. Since tv stations don’t run old movies at night anymore, I’ve used some of these dvds for my late night fix. I’ve got a bunch of the early Hitchcock as well as some old John Wayne movies. I’m looking to get some of the horror movies as well. [/QUOTE] Hitch is public domain? John Wayne? I must have missed that memo – I thought only works before ca. 1923 were in that category. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/22 "2006-09-20T03:59:47Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] Hitch is public domain? John Wayne? I must have missed that memo – I thought only works before ca. 1923 were in that category. [/QUOTE] Until 1976, copyrights were (I believe) 23 years, which then could be renewed for another 23 years at the decision of the copyright holder. Also, if a work did not have a copyright notice, it was considered that this was equivalent to not copyrighting it at all (which is why _Night of the Living Dead_ is public domain). The Copyright Act of 1976 and the Sonny Bono Act changed all this, so that a copyright for hire (such as a movie) lasts 95 years. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/23 "2006-09-20T04:07:45Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] The Copyright Act of 1976 and the Sonny Bono Act changed all this, so that a copyright for hire (such as a movie) lasts 95 years. [/QUOTE] Then the Duke, who was born in 1907, would have to have public domain movies made when he was about 4. Anyone have a 1911 John Wayne movie? Is it on cylinders? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/24 "2006-09-20T04:33:27Z")
Using John Wayne as an example, I quote here from the Wikipedia article about _McLintock!_: > [@](#): > > Produced through John Wayne’s Batjac Productions, John Wayne’s estate retained the rights to the film. Legal suits prevented the film’s copyright from being renewed, causing the film to enter the public domain. Despite being available in public domain distributors for the past decade, the first official home video issue of the film was released in 2004 by Paramount Pictures. Since at the time the [Copyright Law of 1909](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1909) was in effect, _McLintock!_'s copyright expired in 1986. If the copyright had been renewed, _McLintock!_ would have remained copyrighted until 2038, since the Library of Congress no longer required copyrights registered under the 1909 Act to be renewed in 1992 (“Any copyright still in its renewal term at the time that the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act becomes effective shall have a copyright term of 95 years from the date copyright was originally secured.”- United States Code, Title 17, Section 304). A work for hire’s copyright term is different from a copyright by an individual- a copyrighted work for hire is protected for 95 years, but an individual’s work is copyrighted until 70 years after their death. To use your hypothetical example of Young John Wayne, let’s say he did star in a film in 1911, when he was 4 years old. If he had copyrighted this film under a production company he founded (Baby Batjac Productions?), the copyright would have expired on January 1 of this year. If he had copyrighted it under his own name (©1911 by John Wayne), the copyright would expire in 2049 (70 years after 1979, the year he died). ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/25 "2006-09-20T06:23:43Z")
I picked up an Asterix cartoon dvd… wow. I had forgotten how racist those cartoons were. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/26 "2006-09-20T07:49:44Z")
I got a copy of **Night of the Living Dead** at WallMart for a buck. I got three **Three Stooges** sets, too. (total of nine shorts, and I suppose 27 stooges, mathematically speaking) I passed on the Werewolf movies Tris ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/27 "2006-09-20T21:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] I got a dollar set of Betty Boops and also ‘Tom Somethingorother: Space Cadet’ serial that is da bomb. I especially like the one where they find a race of tiny, technologically advance aliens living on an asteriod. You know, B-movie babe type aliens. What a hoot! [/QUOTE] _Tom Corbett, Space Cadet_ on tv from 1950-56 and elsewhere. > **[Tom Corbett Home Page](http://www.solarguard.com/tchome.htm)** > > Tom Corbett Space Cadet Home Page ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/28 "2006-09-20T22:17:28Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] _Tom Corbett, Space Cadet_ on tv from 1950-56 and elsewhere. > **[Tom Corbett Home Page](http://www.solarguard.com/tchome.htm)** > > Tom Corbett Space Cadet Home Page [/QUOTE] No, it was [Rocky Jones, alrighty.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Jones,_Space_Ranger) ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/29 "2006-09-22T03:56:16Z")
I’m gonna save you one dollar! :EEK: [http://www.archive.org/details/moviesandfilms](http://www.archive.org/details/moviesandfilms) and [http://www.archive.org/details/animationandcartoons](http://www.archive.org/details/animationandcartoons) Have a comprehesive list of Public Domain Film, Cartoons, and Goverment shorts. Everything from The 3 Stooges, Racist Looney Toons, to “Duck and Cover”. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/30 "2006-09-23T02:15:17Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] I got the complete documentary series _Victory at Sea_ on two discs for two dollars. [/QUOTE] I found that today! I consider it my best value buy of the year so far (though I haven’t yet seen what the video quality is.) ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/31 "2006-09-23T03:22:27Z")
Since I’m a 70s movie (well, and anything else from that era…) freak, I’ve been able to find some low-rent drama type pieces. You know, starring like Sissy Spacek or Henry Winkler. Or wait, maybe that one was together. 🙂 Anyway, when I have time to kill and a few extra dollars to spend on camp, it’s always worth it. Plus, they were all so young! And angsty! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148/32 "2006-09-23T04:43:09Z")
Some, if not all, eps of “One Step Beyond” have entered the PD. Growing up, from the antique feel of them, I thought they predated “The Twilight Zone.” Nope. Contemporaries from 1959. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-loves-me-some-1-wal-mart-dvds/373148.md?page=1)