"NOTLD" and the public domain...

[B. Brown]

Alright... so I notice that Reese Eveneshen is able to distribute his NOTLD remake for $$$, and the director of NOTLD3D was able to distribute it, too... So, I'm wondering, what exactly is the official status of this film? It's 100% for the public to use? Mr. Eveneshen, did you do any research on this that you could share? The reason I bring this up is because some a-hole on craigslist.org (as I was hunting for some actors) stated that the film isn't in the public domain and that I should consult with my lawyer before doing the film. Any input on this? I'd greatly appreciate it.

[B. Brown]

/bump Nobody knows?

[Eyebiter]

Wikipedia is your friend Copyright status in the U.S. Night of the Living Dead lapsed into the public domain because of the neglect of the original theatrical distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, to place a copyright notice on the prints. In 1968, United States copyright law required a proper notice for a work to maintain a copyright. Image Ten displayed such a notice on the title frames of the film beneath the original title, Night of the Flesh Eaters. The distributor removed the statement when it changed the title.[80] According to George Romero, Walter Reade "ripped us off."[81] Because of the public domain status, the film is sold on home video by several distributors. As of 2006, the Internet Movie Database lists 23 copies of Night of the Living Dead retailing on DVD and nineteen on VHS.[82] The original film is available for download at no cost on Internet sites such as Google Video and Internet Archive.[83][84] As of 3 January 2007, it was the Internet Archive's most downloaded film. [1] Elite Entertainment released a director-approved and fully-restored version of the film. The first Elite release was a laserdisc in which Romero participated in the supplements. The first Elite DVD was released as a single-layer DVD and some of the extras from the laserdisc were dropped due to space limitations but they were included in Elite's current Millennium Edition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead