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

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

First, anything 95 years old is in the public domain. On Jan. 1st every year, works created 95 years ago enter the public domain. As I write this in 2025, everything published ANYTIME during 1929 is in the PD.

Second, I like to read articles on https://publicdomainreview.org/.

One thing you can try is to upload the movie to YouTube. But I’ve found that their detector is too sensitive, it’ll flag something undoubtedly in the PD as being under copyright.