Public domain footage question

ghost072 wrote on 7/6/2004, 12:08 PM

Can public domain footage be used from any source? For instance, Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain; could I use footage from the DVD I own of the film in one of my productions, or does the DVD have its own copyrights that I need to worry about? And how would any one know anyway?

Comments

Jsnkc wrote on 7/6/2004, 12:15 PM

The DVD most likely has CSS and macrovision on it, so if you used it you would be breaking the law just becasue you'd have to circumvent one or both of those in order to be able to use the footage whether the movie is in public domain or not.

Spot|DSE wrote on 7/6/2004, 12:28 PM

The FILM is in the public domain since they failed to attach the copyright before the rule of 76 went into effect. But the MASTER is not part of pub domain, and is owned by whomever buys the master rights from the current mechanical holder. So, not only would you be violating law by decrypting the movie from a DVD, you'd also be violating the copyright of the person who put the film ON a DVD.

sghoughton wrote on 7/6/2004, 12:55 PM

There are several formats on archive.org you can grab it from. Maybe one of those will do you well.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/6/2004, 1:46 PM

Hey, if I already have access to a non-encrypted of public domaain material, can i sitll use it (the TV station I used to work fore was sjut sold & they have BOXES of pub domain movies, all on 3/4 & SVHS)

ghost072 wrote on 7/6/2004, 2:12 PM

Wow! Great tip, thanks! I should definitely be able to find something for my character to watch there...