05
Room 05
Reading the record — copyright notices, renewal registration, the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Stanford's database, and why a distributor's claim on a print is not a claim on the film.
4 pieces in this room · all five rooms
05.01First on the shelf
Explains the pre-1978 requirement that a copyright notice appear on every published copy, what a valid notice contained, and how omission or defect placed a work in the public domain immediately. Uses specific film title cards as examples of correct and defective notice.
05.02On the shelf
Introduces the Copyright Office's Catalog of Copyright Entries as a research tool — its structure, the years it covers, what a renewal entry looks like, and where the digitised volumes are held.
05.03On the shelf
Describes the Copyright Renewal Database maintained by Stanford University Libraries — its scope, how to search it, and how to interpret a result confirming or failing to find a renewal entry.
05.04On the shelf
Explains the situation where the film itself is in the public domain but the musical score or a song embedded in it remains under copyright, making a full reproduction technically complicated.