PD WB shorts

[Cartman]

I understand that shorts such as ALL THIS AND RABBIT STEW and DAFFY THE COMMANDO are in the public domain, but wouldn't WB still own the rights to the characters Bugs and Daffy?


:confused:

[lislebartman]

Yes, but at one point, they let the copyright for that particular cartoon lapse, so anyone could broadcast or release it for private home viewing. The same thing happened to a few of the Three Stooges shorts and that classic Yuletide movie "It's A Wonderful Life".

[Cartman]

So that means that I could make a copy of DAFFY THE COMMANDO and sell it, right?

[lislebartman]

I'm sure you could, but you'd have to acknowledge that the cartoon being distributed is not being licensed by Warners; you have to claim that it was in the public domain.

[Patrick McCart]

Alternate versions save PD films...

Thanks to Republic finding the negatives to It's A Wonderful Life and the original audio recordings, they made a restored version (which is essentially perfect) that is now copyrighted!

For example...Miss Glory is in the public domain (the cartoon), but the dubbed version is tightly copyrighted by Turner (now WB).

This is why PD tapes usually have poor prints and cut off logos..