copyright
Who owns copyright of Chaplin&#39;s movies (The Kid)
<p>I wanted to ask whether it is legal to screen publicly Chaplin's The Kid (1921). In US according to Wikipedia, all movies made before 1923 are in the public domain. In UK I think the srory is different and the copyright lasts for the author's lifetime + 70 years. Charlie Chaplin was born in London, but spent most of his movie making years in US. Wiki says that The Kid was made by Chaplin (directed and produced) in his studio in US. So which copyright law is in power here, US or UK? </p>

<p>I would think that in this case US law is in power as the movie was made in US under a contract with US distributor, and thus the movie is in the public domain but then there is <a href="http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/contacts/articles" rel="nofollow">this</a> company which claims it owns copyright to all movies made by Chaplin after 1918. So who is right and what are the ways to find out. US copyright registry is digitized only for the period after 1978 :( </p>

<p>I think it is probably public domain.</p>

<p>I would suggest contacting Jon Mulvaney at the <a href="https://www.criterion.com/contact_us" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Criterion Collection</a>. They recently remastered "The Kid" and will know all about the rights for public showings. Also, if you want to show their remastered version, which is very high quality, they can explain the process.</p>

<p>True that you should operate under the laws of the country you are in HOWEVER, the Berne Convention (essentially a contract between countries asking each other to respect each other's copyright laws to an extent) advises that the copyright laws of other signatory countries do not extend the life of copyright in a work that has expired in it's country of origin.  (see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention#Copyright_term" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention#Copyright_term</a>) </p>

<p>In normal speak.... If the content is out of copyright in its country of origin, it is out of copyright everywhere.  Our local laws do not have the power to bring something back into copyright.  </p>

<p>If you decided to move to Hungary, for example, then you would have to obey Hungarian copyright law while you are in that country. If what you do is legal according to Hungarian law, it's fine, if not, you can be sued in Hungary. </p>

<p>Similar, US copyright matters to you if you are in the USA. If a work was created in the UK, and you do something in the USA that is illegal according to US copyright law, but would be legal according to UK copyright law, then you can be sued. It doesn't matter where the work was created, and so on, just where you are and whether you breach the law in the country where you are. </p>

<p>And most copyright infringement is a civil matter, and a copyright holder in the UK might be less likely to sue you in the USA. </p>
