"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? :rockbrow:

[Eyebiter]

Wikipedia is your friend

Copyright status in the U.S.

Night of the Living Dead lapsed into the public domain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain) because of the neglect of the original theatrical distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, to place a copyright (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright) notice on the prints. In 1968, United States copyright law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead#_note-61) According to George Romero, Walter Reade "ripped us off."[81] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead#_note-62)
Because of the public domain status, the film is sold on home video by several distributors. As of 2006, the Internet Movie Database (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Movie_Database) lists 23 copies of Night of the Living Dead retailing on DVD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD) and nineteen on VHS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS).[82] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead#_note-63) The original film is available for download (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Download) at no cost on Internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet) sites such as Google Video (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Video) and Internet Archive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive).[83] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead#_note-64)[84] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead#_note-65) As of 3 January 2007, it was the Internet Archive's most downloaded film. [1] (http://www.archive.org/details/moviesandfilms) 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