[d at DCC] Pirating is Illegal! [Was: Movie copyright duration]

[Simon Valiquette]

Jonathan Addleman un jour écrivit:
> Scott Elcomb wrote:
>> The original movie (b&w) was produced in 1937...
>>
>> Could anyone tell me if can I legally "copy" this movie?  (I'm not
>> expecting responses from lawyers, but I'd really enjoy your opinions!)
> 
> Looks like I was mistaken about the US copyrights, actually. While the
> laws in place in 1937 allowed for a 28 year copyright term that could
> also be renewed for another 28 years, the copyright act of 1976 extended
> this renewal to 48 years for works that hadn't yet expired. So anything
> published from 1923 and 1977 is protected for 95 years from publication
> date. That assumes that the original copyright was renewed, of course,
> though I haven't searched the database, since it's such a pain.
> 
> Of course, who knows whether the 'author' died more than 50 years ago or
> not. It may or may not still be protected here in Canada.
> 

   I am very confident that the original work is in the public domain in 
Canada.

   I also think that the B&W version on the DVD is also in the public 
domain in Canada.  Recent translation are probably protected, because the 
new sound track can be copyrighted (so, you can copy the image, but not 
the sound).

   For the color version, well I don't know.  Is that really a creation, 
or just a restauration of the colors we could have seen if the technology 
did allow them to be filmed?  I would be tempted to say that you can copy 
It only if you remove the colors.  But that would means that you can 
copyright the colors of a movie as a creation, and I am not sure you can 
do that.

   What I am sure, is that I don't want to be the one defending the color 
thing in court.

Simon Valiquette