There are buttloads of old cartoons that are now in the public domain, yet I only found one pathetic site with 5 streaming 56k Bugs Bunny cartoons.
I tried several search engines, and could only come up with sites that sold them on video tape, usually to broadcasters.
Anybody know of a site with old public domain cartoons that are viewable at rates above 56k? I’m not interested in sites with new toons made for the web, I already know more of those than I need.
Oops, I forgot to mention the site with 5 public domain Bugs Bunny toons:
Going to make them a sermon Rev?
Try this trick: at http://www.google.com/
Input: cartoons public domain
Result: That site & some other fun stuff:
Maybe this one:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/9659/publicdomain.html
Probably because digitizing, mounting, and streaming 6-7 minutes of video costs money, and if the works are in the public domain, there are no parties with a potential financial upside to be gained in undertaking such a project. But if you want to put one together, or you find one, I’d gladly contribute!
Try newsgroups.
alt.binaries.multimedia.cartoons has 30-40 cartoons at any given time with daily turnover, only some of which are legal. Download at your own risk and/or as your conscience/ethics dictate.
Fenris
Remember, too, that though the cartoons themselves may be public domain, the characters in them are most likely still under trademark.
handy,
I did use Google, but the results are always sites that offer them for sale on tape (like the one you referenced), not to view online.
pldennison: Possibly a site which offered cartoons could sell ad space (banner ads and the like), so maybe it could be a money making venture. Or at least someone’s hobby that might break even.
Fenris: I’ll give the newsgroups a shot, thanks!
RealityChuck: Interesting point. I wonder if the people who sell video tapes of the pub domain cartoons have to reimburse owners because of the characters?
Bugs Bunny in public domain???. I think not.
the magic year is 1923. If it was published after 1923 then it is in all likelyhoood still under copyright.
-luckie
Bugs is in the public domain, sort of. Go to http://www.throttlebox.com , jump through their hoops, and you can snag all sorts of great pre-war and wartime WB flicks, as well as Gumby, Felix and lots of other stuff.
A word of caution: Throttlebox is one of those “too good to be true” sites that gives you exactly what you want for a minimum of bullshit. They’re probably systematically downloading your entire C drive while you use it. Otherwise, they’re just talented folks using their abilities for the betterment of humanity. Hah! I’ll believe that when I see it hold out to AOL or Microsoft.
And Luckie ain’t foolin’ about the pre-1923 thing. Everything else has fallen into the public domain simply by the incompetence of corporations and estates when it comes to renewing copyrights. It’s a Wonderful Life fell into the public domain in 1973 by accident, which explains why it’s all over television today, and many great foreign films, such as Metropolis, have suffered somewhat because there are so many different versions.
Anyway, this one is worth bookmarking, since it’s such a pain in the ass to find. The Library of Congress has a fairly comprehensive animation section online. It is here:
or here
or, if neither of those work, you can start slogging here:
One of those has got to work. In other collections, they have reenactments of the Spanish-American War, and the infamous Edison-zapping-an-elephant-to-embarass-Tesla film, which is… barbaric? Entertaining? I don’t really know.
Pre-1923 means the work is unabiguously in the public domain. However, works prior to 1958 or so could possibly be in the public domain if the copyright holder never renewed the copyright. The law in effect until 1977 required a renewal; that’s why It’s a Wonderful Life fell into the public domain. (It’s not any more, since they managed to keep the soundtrack under copyright protection). His Girl Friday also fell into PD for this reason.
A few years ago, some publisher printed a bunch of Mickey Mouse comic strips for which Disney failed to renew the copyright (since Mickey originated with sound films, these were probably made in the 1930s or later). Disney didn’t claim copyright, but sued for trademark infringement. The court ruled that the publisher could not publish any more collections of the strips, but, in an attack of common sense, allowed the publisher to sell the books they’d already printed.
Sofa King, thanks for the links. You are right; Throttlebox seems almost too good to be true. They have “Reefer Madness” and “Night Of The Living Dead”!