On the Public Domain…

I was toying around with GNU vcdimager this week, trying to make some nice interactive video CDs. I was looking for some video footage in VCD MPEG-1 format to use as a test, and came up with a couple of options

  • The Prelinger Archives offers many films in VCD format, including such classics as A is for Atom and Duck and Cover.

  • I could also convert some existing footage from another source, such as DVD.

In my collection, I have a DVD that contains three silent films by Buster Keaton: The General, Paleface and The Blacksmith. A brief websearch reveals
that all of these films are now in the public domain. So, the question to ask is, what am I
allowed to do with my DVD?

Initially of course, we know that circumventing the CSS protection on the DVD is a crime, regardless of whether the underlying material is public domain or not. This point was brought to my attention rather well by Andy Greenburg, and remains the single finest objection that I can see to the DMCA and similar legislation.

Ignoring that (at my own peril), let’s assume that the film itself is in the public domain. Could the company that released the DVD have any copyright claims on the work? Well, it seems hard to tell. They may be able to make some claim that the menus and additional material on the CD are covered
by copyright, and therefore cannot be redistributed. Perhaps the music on the CD is not from an
original recording (how could I possibly tell?) and would therefore be covered by copyright.

What if the film has been colorized? There has been some precedent that claims that colorization creates a signfiicant derivation of the original work that could be copyrighted. What about digital restoration efforts? Do these create a significant derivation of the original work?

The DVD that I have carries a warning that copying of copyrighted materials is a federal offense. No where does it claim that any of the works appearing on the DVD are copyrighted (nor does it have to, given modern copyright law). How can I determine what my fair and/or unregulated uses of this film are?