movies

3462 readers

617 users here now

Matrix room: https://matrix.to/#/#fediversefilms:matrix.org

Warning: If the community is empty, make sure you have "English" selected in your languages in your account settings.

🔎 Find discussion threads

A community focused on discussions on movies. Besides usual movie news, the following threads are welcome

Discussion threads to discuss about a specific movie or show
Weekly threads: what have you been watching lately?
Trailers
Posters
Retrospectives
Should I watch?

Related communities:

Show communities:

Discussion communities:

RULES

Spoilers are strictly forbidden in post titles.

Posts soliciting spoilers (endings, plot elements, twists, etc.) should contain [spoilers] in their title. Comments in these posts do not need to be hidden in spoiler MarkDown if they pertain to the title’s subject matter.

Otherwise, spoilers but must be contained in MarkDown.

2024 discussion threads

Dune

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How would I check if a movie is in the public domain? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Been working on grabbing a few movies from online to download and save as more options for movie nights with friends on top of the DVDs and VHS tapes I have.

I'm aware one can find mentions on Wikipedia or the Internet Archive saying "oh this film is public domain", but the sourcing seems to be sketchy a lot of the time. Like a Wikipedia article will mention a movie is public domain, and then link to a site for public domain movies or the Internet Archive with neither stating why the film is public domain.

Is there a simple means to check for yourself the copyright status of movies? Would help a lot with having confidence in the collection of films I'm building up.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Mostly just look at the copyright date if it's before 1929 it's public domain in the United States. You have to look up your local laws if you are outside the US. In 2026 it will be 1930 going up once a year.