Just how long does copyright last on old movies?

Factual Questions
1

I thought 75 years was the limit for copyright but I’ve just noticed that a clip from Cagney’s Footlight Parade (1933) has been pulled from YouTube for copyright violation.

So what does the law say? When does copyright expire for movies?

2

It depends.

ETA: Ah, I see it’s a musical. For old films, it’s not uncommon for the copyright on the film to expire but the copyright in the soundtrack music to last longer.

3

That would be the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. The term for corporate works is now 95 years for anything that had not entered the public domain before that point, so you’re not guaranteed of a work being in the public domain (in the U.S.) unless it was published before 1923.

4

Here is a chart: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/

5

Here’s an interesting list of copyright info from Cornell University.

I found it interesting you can only search online at the copyright office from 1978 to present. Otherwise to look at their catalog you have to go to the site in person or pay $150/hr for them to search for you.

AND (this is the part I love…LOL) It says "since copyrights can be assigned locating the information in the copyright database does not indicate ownership of copyright.

Don’t you love how they make it so difficult to determain copyright.

As for YouTube, they will pull almost anything if someone complains whether it is copyrighted or not. It’s easier for YouTube to just pull it then fight a potential legal battle.

6

They didn’t “make it so difficult.” There are a lot of copyrights out there. It’s difficult to a large extent because of the nature of the right itself, especially based on the Berne Convention’s conception of copyrights as automatically adhering upon fixation rather than based on registration.

And also because that’s what they are supposed to do under the DMCA, so long as the notice is according to form. The party posting the video then gets a chance to argue that the video is not subject to copyright protections or that the posting is otherwise legal. The point is not to burden YouTube when the dispute is between someone claiming copyrights and a user who has posted content.