Supreme Court Showdown!

Do you remember when "It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domain? It was making money for a lot of people. Republic Pictures wanted all the money for themselves so they bought rights to something that might have a connection - either music rights or a short story published when the film came out. Then they told the world: "We now own the film. Stop using it as public domain or we will sue you." Their ownership claim was shaky, but no PD dealer wanted to invest $100,000 or more to contest, because all they could win was the right for everyone to again use it freely. That is the eternal plight of the little man vs. the corporation.

But we do have a champion who will fight for even bigger issues, not just copyright issues, but basic human rights when they are usurped by corporate powers. That hero is the Stanford Law School.

In the mid-1990s two changes to the US copyright laws were railroaded through by the big corporations. The law at the time allowed one year of music, books and films to enter the public domain each year, 75 years after originally published. Works from the early 1920s had started going PD. This could not be allowed to stand because soon sound films would become PD and even Mickey Mouse. A copyright extension bill, called the Sonny Bono bill, was rushed through that extended copyright terms to 95 years from the death of the author. Since movies are made by studios it generally means 95 years from the year of release. All films made in 1922 or earlier were frozen as being in the public domain, but 1923 films, which were still under copyright because of being renewed, would not become PD until 2018.

The Stanford Law School was unable to overturn the copyright extension law. Let's hope they can halt any further extension in a few years.

The other copyright change was messier and very possibly unconstitutional. A large number of foreign films had fallen into the public domain in the USA because they had never been registered, or registered improperly or without © notices or not renewed. Major films include Kurosawa and Bergman films like Rashomon, Seven Samurai, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and also Breathless, Last Year at Marienbad, Buneul's Viridiana, Hitchcock's British films, Metropolis, Passion of Joan of Arc and many more. All of these I sold on 16mm in the 1970s before the advent of home video.

In 1994, Congress adopted legislation to move these works back into copyright, so U.S. policy would comport with an international copyright treaty known as the Berne Convention. The new law gave foreign companies two years in which to file new ownership papers with the Library of Congress. Most filings contain wording like:

	Reg. under GATT/URAA restoration

The companies were supposed to have something to do with making the films in the first place. There was, in my opinion, massive abuse of the filings by companies that had no involvement. But the main point is that congress should not have the right under the constitution to remove any works from the public domain once they have fallen into it.

Stanford rightfully and to their great credit took up this cause on behalf of the public. Before proceeding Stanford needed plaintiffs or petitioners to work for. The first one was Lawrence Golan who conducted the Denver Symphony Orchestra (I think). They were suddenly asked to pay large amounts of money to conduct Russian compositions from the 1920s which had been in the public domain.

A lawyer called me one day around 2000 and asked if I wanted to be part of this lawsuit. I readily agreed. Over the years I have supplied lists of foreign films that I used to sell as PD, but don't anymore. Stanford does all the rest. Months and years have gone by between contacts. One day someone called and said, "Hi, I'm your lawyer." I replied, "What lawyer?" The conversation improved after that.

After ten years of ups and downs in court rooms, the case will be heard by the Supreme Court! This is a major milestone! Please go to the blog of the lead attorney, Anthony Falzone, and read Details Here.

There will be more to this story!

Visit my website at Festival Films

Saturday Matinee Online!

The long-anticipated (by me) Saturday Matinee website is now online at (where else?) saturdaymatinee.com. This is the culmination of a life-long dream of its creator, who first purchased the web domain name (saturdaymatinee.com) more than ten years ago!

I need to point out that while you can explore the site now, March is a test period to add more content and iron out bugs. A major press release in April will alert the public at large. Eventually you will find: "...no less than 10,000 videos, including more than 3,000 movies (including over 100 of the best silent movies), about 1,000 movie trailers, 1,000 or so cartoons, and 100’s of educational and historical documentaries and newsreels, plus over 50,000 old time radio episodes, and over 50,000 still images." I counted 49 episodes of "The Shadow" that you can listen to today, and the quality is excellent.

The full scope of the undertaking is discussed at the About Us section. To quote a bit:

"Saturday Matinee is about recorded entertainment. Here you will find the entertainers and artists whose work spans the decades, and what they produced, from the earliest days of the “Golden Age” of radio, from the earliest movies made by the pioneers of the industry, and from the birth of the phenomenon that is television. People have always needed entertainment, a means to learn more about the world around them, and a way to escape for a while into the world of imagination.

"Saturday Matinee is also about education. As you search through the immense library of images and programs you will see and hear and learn who the pioneers were, and how their art was produced and the way it has progressed through evolving technology.

"Saturday Matinee is also about nostalgia. It is about reliving the early days of radio, film, and TV, whether you are old enough to remember them or not. Be transported to a different time. For those who do remember the early days, it will spark memories of evenings at home with the family gathered around the big radio to hear the news and to be tantalized by the radio programs that brought comedy, romance, drama, mystery, cowboys and even monsters right into your living room.

"Viewing the original movies--the silents, the black and whites, the first 'talkies', the serial cliffhangers--will inspire memories of the theaters where you stood in line for your ticket, scanned the display cases in the lobby for your special treats (hard candy? chocolate bar?—what to choose?) and inhaled the aroma of freshly popped popcorn surrounding you while you found your seat as a hush fell and the lights dimmed. Where will the movie take you today? How will your hero manage to outwit the villains this week? And then later, watching the early television programs, in the comfort of your own home--cartoons for the children, documentaries for the entire family to watch and to learn from, dramas, comedies, variety shows, westerns--the world, brought right to you."

I have been working with this site for two years now. Eventually Saturday Matinee will carry online my Movie Memories in an area called "Community" where members may post memories of the films, the era, or past experiences that they recall while watching the film clips. They can also view other comments about the same films and post replies.

The success of Saturday Matinee will spur interest in the return of "Matinee at the Bijou." There is no competition since Bijou will be a series of DVDs or an eventual new series, while Saturday Matinee's exclusive domain is the Internet. We are all in this together for the same purpose -- to tell the world: "Hey! These old films are pretty darned fun and better than ever! Come take a look."

Click to visit saturdaymatinee.com

Visit my website at Festival Films.

Confession Time!

February marks the two-year anniversary of getting the Café Roxy idea. In March of 2009 I met with my web-hoster friend, Andy Lehrfeld, at the Syracuse Cinefest and discussed opening a second website for the idea. I don't know exactly when it went online, but April 27, 2009, was my first blog entry. By that time I had a few programs ready, the free sample disc for anyone to try in their situation and early posters.

I always felt the poster idea was great. I make a poster to advertise each program to my potential customers, and they could use the same poster on their website or printed out to attract their audience. The early posters were crudely designed but I got better as I went along.

Anyway, as I embark on the new venture of "Movie Memories," it's a good time to be honest about the successes and failures of Café Roxy to date.

Café Roxy for Cafés -- BOMB!

To paraphrase the top of this page, the Roxy idea is that any establishment can show public domain movies at anytime. The ones I put into programs are ones that still entertain. I don't expect anyone to sit through Love Affair while eating a sandwich, even though it's an excellent film that is enjoyable watched on TV. So Café Roxy sounds like a good idea. It is a good idea. Everyone says it sounds like a good idea, which is why I leave the blurb at the top of my blog. The trouble is that no one wants to take a chance and try it.

It could be that restaurants and coffee houses are not adventuresome. Of course chains like Starbucks would have no interest and seem to be doing just fine as is. Independent dives would need to set up a viewing area, advertise, buy my shows and, uh... that doesn't sound that hard to do. The result would yield an experience no one else in town is doing and that should get some good press coverage.

More likely the fault is mine in not aggressively seeking out this audience. I explored it locally and found it to be too much work to promote on my own.

Café Roxy for Movie Theaters - Success!

Roxy Matinee programs are being shown in some movie theaters, and I hear constantly from new theaters thinking about trying them out. Many inquiries are from owners who have an old theater that they are refurbishing and want to try movies again as an addition to their live music and comedy shows. They do not want to compete with local theaters by showing the new films. Vintage films for a vintage theater is a better fit.

Festival Films has been in the search engines for years as a source for public domain films, so theaters thinking about showing PD films do find me. I have never done a publicity campaign or press releases for Café Roxy shows because I am also associated with a campaign to bring back "Matinee at the Bijou." The hit PBS series from the early 1980s still has a high name recognition, and will attract a wide audience when it comes back on DVD releases of the original episodes or as a new series in high definition.

Café Roxy for TV Stations -- Success!

I sell public domain films to independent cable and local access TV stations around the country. I offer all of the most popular PD films and TV shows. I can also offer the Roxy Matinees for the same price and they include cartoons, shorts and serial chapters -- an excellent value!

This past week I got a call from a Dallas TV station wanting horror films. They have a local "Count Dracula" host who wants to get back on the air and seemed excited about the "12 Nights of Horror" that includes "The Phantom Creeps" Serial. They would run it late Saturday night. If their time slot is open ended, the show with a host could run 2 1/2 hours, or if they need to fit into two hours, they could always cut a cartoon. I hope they follow through since the Twin Cities once had such a series hosted by our own "Count Dracula."

The Café Roxy Website -- BOMB!

My naive thinking was that a new website for a new idea would attract new business. The search engines did pick up on the website and if you type "Café Roxy" in... my site comes out on top! Yeah! #One! The problem is obvious -- no one knows about Café Roxy so no one searches for it. It is not a generic term like "Public Domain Films."

I thought perhaps I could make a big success Some Place, that would generate a major news article about vintage film revivals, and that would be syndicated around the country, and that would translate into hits on the website. That didn't happen.

Integration of Café Roxy & Festival Films -- SUCCESS!

I decided to switch back to one website in late March of 2010. You can see the home page on the left or explore the combined website HERE. My son Jeff who is a computer engineer and designer ran across a website design he thought would work well. (He once said about my old site: "I wouldn't buy anything from a website that looks like this.") Now an icon on the left directs one to a listing of public domain features and TV shows, while an icon on the right links to the Café Roxy Shows. The Movie Memories icon was just added two weeks ago. A selection of links on the left side and bottom appear on every page. I have had much favorable feedback over the ease of navigating the new site.

Fitting all the PD shows into the new format took several months, but I feel the results were well worth it. It now looks professional and fun for any new visitors who happen to drop in.

The Café Roxy Blog -- Big Success!

I don't think I have many regular readers since comments are rarely posted and Youtube videos I put up in connection with some article do not get many views. I never promote the blog other than giving it a link from my website. But it has been a huge success for me personally for these reasons:

I get ideas when I write about them for who knows who out there in cyberspace. I sometimes refer customers to specific blog posts to address questions.

The blog captures the evolution of ideas in time capsules, in case I ever need to prove ownership of an idea. So far no one is copying me that I know of!

Potential customers who find my site for the first time are likely to peek at the blog to check my credibility, and hopefully come away thinking -- This guy seems to know what he is talking about. One of my now-close associates, Jim Salmon, who opens Saturday Matinee website in March, contacted me in December 2009 after seeing my Matinee video promo on Youtube.

Much more on Saturday Matinee when it launches! Next week? Stay tuned.

Visit my website at Festival Films

Launching Movie Memories!

On Jan. 8 I blogged about "Ideas to Launch a Scheme On." On Jan. 22 I mentioned in "The Birth of Festival Films" how I stumbled into selling 16mm classics to colleges that needed prints to own rather than to rent. I sum up in both that the key to a successful business is 1) Don't copy others. 2) Find a new audience. 3) Create a new product for that audience. They probably teach that the first day in Business 101, but I never took a basic business course in high school or college.

Around the first of December I put on my thinking cap to find that new product for a new audience. I found it in the shorts I have been collecting for Café Roxy Matinees and Cartoon Brunches. I found it in an old project from 1998 that I failed to pursue properly - "The Remembering Series." My sell sheet is on the right. Click to enlarge if interested. I sent out a few of these to retirement communities in Minnesota, made a few sales and then decided it was too hard to reach this audience.

I spell out the basic idea well: "This unique video series is designed for the entertainment and enjoyment in retirement and nursing home facilities. Your residents will revisit moments from their past that made them laugh, cry, tap their toes and sing their hearts out. These professionally produced, quality presentations are absolutely guaranteed to delight or your money back! We can make this guarantee because the contents were selected in consultation with leaders in the Senior Activities field. The videos have been tested on audiences with overwhelming acclaim!"

One problem was that the short films were on VHS and could not be accessed easily. Another problem was they were just a collection of films to watch. Retirement homes all have Activity Directors, whose job is to supply activities. I found a way to turn old movies into activities: Watch them one at a time as a group of friends. Pause the show. Ask questions related to the film just seen. The questions stir memory and spark discussions that can go in any direction. Music can even reach alzheimer seniors. I explain it further on the DVD covers:

Movie Memories are nostalgic films from the 1930s through the 1960s. They may be watched for historical interest, as time capsules into eras long vanished or for pure enjoyment of the music, stars and family-friendly stories.

Movie Memories are designed to be shown to seniors who grew up in those years. Watching the films they enjoyed in their youth -- as well as the television shows and newsreels, the cars and trains, homes and schools, filling stations and drug stores, hairstyles and fashions, toys and sports -- will serve as a catalyst to reminisce about their pasts.

Movie Memories work well with small groups of friends who enjoy talking together. A moderator or group leader shows films one at a time from a DVD player connected to a television or projection TV system. After each segment is screened, they read trivia about the film and ask questions from the study guide. The discussion should be encouraged to go in any direction it wants and take as long as the participants desire. For instance, “The Fifth Freedom” could spark a discussion of favorite Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movies or how they enjoyed Arthur Godfrey and Perry Como on TV. It could also lead into small towns they grew up in, or happy memories of family life, or how everyone smoked during the 1950s. One short could thus fill an hour with lively talk.

Not every film will have a direct connection to normal lives, since few have been astronauts, cowboys or big game hunters, but every vintage film will stir memories of a way of life through the images frozen in time. Every good story will touch on the universal themes of good and evil, conflict, goals, success, love and friendship. Discussion can always return to the movie-going experience: “The popcorn was so good and only cost a dime.” “Roy Rogers was my hero.” “We took a streetcar to the Roxy every Saturday afternoon.” “I got my first kiss watching Tarzan.”

The purpose of Movie Memories is to encourage discussion of any topic. We all have memories of growing up and raising a family. What better way to recall our pasts than to revisit those days on film and reminisce in the company of friends?

Movie Memories has been launched on my website! You can peruse the contents of the first two volumes and the Study Guides that a moderator reads from to spark discussions.

Launching in March to great fanfare will be "Saturday Matinee" website. This is not mine, but I have been contributing. I will have much more to say about it soon. An online version of Movie Memories will be included. Watch the short films, then write about your memories of them or of incidents in your life that the films brought back.

You can watch the first Movie Memory right now and right here:

Now I just need to find out how to reach thousands of activity directors for seniors! Visit my website at Festival Films

The Last Post ... About Posters!

I have become a bit addicted to movie poster auctions when I have one up for bids. Especially on the last day I check ten or more times, maybe even ten times in the last five minutes, because I have been rewarded with big leaps. Each higher price means more in my pocket. It's a game, and I am the winner.

Last week I auctioned this lobby card for Dial M For Murder with Grace Kelly (or her stand-in) back to the camera. I didn't realize what an iconic image it was when I consigned it to the auction. Tuesday at 1:30pm it had a bid of $170. Eight bids later it closed at $387!

I recommend www.emovieposter.com. They answer queries about posters you are thinking of sending to them. They take care of all problems. There rarely are any! They pay promptly. Emovie has an archive of 363,658 posters they have sold in the past. Go to their Image Archive to research the value of your poster collection. Simply type in a title to see what various size posters have sold for in the past. Emovie pays the most for posters auctioned with a sliding scale that keeps 20% for items that sell for over $1,000 and 28% for those selling between $100 and $300. At 26% for the Dial M lobby card, I should get a check for $287. I am very happy about the arrangement since Emovie does all the work and I could never reach every serious poster collector in the world by auctioning it myself on ebay.

Here are the benefits of consigning to emovie.com in their own words:

• The only work you do is getting your items to us. We do everything else!
• No hidden agenda. We stand by what we say and will never mislead you.
• We NEVER buy items from you because that would put us in direct conflict with our consignment based business, and we would be on "the opposite side" from you, needing to buy your items for a low price. When you consign to us, we are "on the same side" so if your items sell for more, then you get more and we also get more. This means we are highly motivated to get the most for your items.
• You get an audience of 8,236 movie paper collectors who know us (many have been buying from us for 20 years) and who know that we always describe everything honestly and usually send purchases out within two business days of receiving payment, very securely wrapped in specially made extra-strong boxes and tubes. This makes bidders more likely to bid on an item we're offering than one offered by someone unknown to them (like you!).
• Since we auction on a regular schedule every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday offering 1,000 to 2,000 items a week, bidders are more inclined to look over our auctions because we will probably have something to interest them. There are thousands of people who check our auctions every single time, and who would probably miss your item if it is auctioned any other way, because they simply don't have the time to check out other auction sites on a regular basis!

I recently auctioned the above poster for Ministry of Fear and it sold for $415. I don't even remember how I acquired the poster. I once owned a 16mm print of the film and the poster might have been included free, or I might have picked up the poster cheaply because I owned the print. I also sold a lobby card from the film last week for $112, and I am keeping another lobby card because I don't think it would sell for much.

My Dirty Harry poster sold for $333. It's a striking image and a landmark film in the career of one of the greats, but the poster was not in the best condition. No one-sheets from this film are in great shape because they were printed on a kind of glossy paper that picked up wear along the folds as soon as they were folded, and all one-sheets were folded. In the weeks after mine sold, two others sold for $205 and $249.

Apparently poor condition does not hamper the sale price of the rarest of rare posters. I could not believe how poor this lobby card for Frankenstein was or how much it sold for. It was found in a barn! Anyway, the final selling price this week was $4,608! Some restorer has a lot of work ahead of them.


How do I feel about selling posters I have owned for many years? Just fine! The reason is because I kept them in boxes and never displayed them on walls so that they had a chance to become part of my life. Yes, I sure wish I had bought more posters over the years ... so I could sell them now! I do feel good about spotting quality posters that I could not walk away from. I mentioned in my earlier post about auctioning posters, that a lobby card for Lady from Shanghai sold for $900.

Why is this my last post about posters? Because I have sold all the good ones in my collection. I am keeping a few, but no more big auction deals will be coming up for me, at least not from the ones I bought years ago. I guess I need to look through old barns for more!

Visit my website at Festival Films

The Birth of Festival Films!

Two weeks ago I wrote about ideas for using public domain films. Nothing much is ever new NEW, but put together in creative ways one may find a profitable market. In brief I said: 1) Don't copy others. 2) Find a new audience. 3) Create a new product for that audience. This reminded me how Festival Films started 35 years ago following those same principles. It all began way back when...

I bought my first 16mm film in 1968. Not sure which feature I got first, but Goldiggers of 1933, the 1949 Mark of Zorro and Bride of Frankenstein were among the first acquisitions. Oops, off track. I moved to Minneapolis in late 1969 to work at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater. I ran the "Xanadu Film Festival" film society from 1971 to 1974 on the University of Minnesota campus. I invested that added income in more 16mm films, which we showed again and again at the society.

During my film buying of the early 1970s I came across several companies that openly sold 16mm films through catalogs -- Griggs Moviedrome (run by Robert E. Lee), Thunderbird Films (Tom Dunahoo), Em Gee Film Library (Murray Glass), Niles Films, Wonderland Films and of course Blackhawk Films. Wonderland sold a lot of copyrighted films they did not have the rights to sell, and some private individuals did that as well. Blackhawk had licensed films of Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang. But those other companies, particularly Griggs and Thunderbird, sold the same films month after month from negatives and they added to their catalogs with new releases. That is how I discovered public domain films.

On a parallel track and because I showed films on the University campus, I came to notice that many colleges taught film making or at least had basic film history courses. I had taken a few at the University of Wisconsin from 1964 to 1968. They used the same classics year after year like Birth of a Nation, Potemkin, Grand Illusion, The Great Train Robbery, A Trip to the Moon -- but they rented them with mixed results from Budget Films, Films Incorporated, Audio Brandon, Kit Parker Films and Swank Films. Before Video this was the only way to show films. However, prints were often scratched and worn out or incomplete or of poor quality.

After a few years of groggy awareness of the situation, the big idea finally permeated my skull -- I could sell new 16mm prints from the film companies I had a relationship with direct to colleges who were unaware that they could OWN films they were currently RENTING. When I went to the 16mm suppliers I was delighted to find that would not only work for them but they could offer me an additional discount. Therefore I could retail the films for the same price they sold them for and make a good profit off my discount.

My wife Christine and I began selling to colleges in 1975 via small lists. It was successful enough to issue a 32-page catalog in 1976 that is dated 1977 -- the one shown here with Peter Lorre from "M." The text was typewritten with larger film titles in press-on lettering. The prices of brand new lab prints was absurdly low, with the price of a two-reel Chaplin at $50 and a two-hour film like Paisan at $225. A few years later Eastman Kodak doubled the cost of raw film stock but in the 1970s it was quite cheap.

In the catalog introduction I say: "Welcome to our third year as 16mm film distributors! All films listed in this 1977 catalog are FOR SALE. All films are out of copyright and so may be legally purchased. They may be used for most public and private screenings by film collectors, film societies, schools, libraries and art museums. You may charge admission for the showings. Some of the silent films are available with newly-recorded music tracks which have been copyrighted, and so these prints may not be shown theatrically or on television without permission. All films are in new condition and are printed at professional film labs."

The idea of selling a new product to a customer base who needed them ... worked incredibly well! In retrospect I could have quit my day job, invested $10,000 to reach every college and library in the country, hired people and made my fortune before I was 30. Actually someone else did this. About two years after we started, Reel Images showed up doing the same thing. The two owners were Jon Sonneborn and Marty Kearns. One summer on a trip to Hollywood we visited Marty in a little office where he and three hired assistants were processing orders by putting 16mm films on reels and boxing them up to ship. Four guys, as I recall, and Jon had another operation on the East coast. That's when it hit me. I could have been big. But I did not have the business training to know how to build on my success. I did not strike while the old iron was hot.

The catalog at the top is our last 16mm film catalog, dated 1988. The one at the bottom is our last printed film/video catalog from 1993. A lot happened in between and since.


Visit my website at Festival Films

Must Read P.D.!

Most of my business involves the sale and use of public domain films. I advise new customers to familiarize themselves with the PD concept -- how, when and why certain films become public domain and can therefore be re-sold, shown on TV, the Internet or almost any use you want to do with them. It can be confusing, so to clarify it in my own mind I wrote up a discussion of copyright and public domain about 8 years ago and posted it on my website. While I may generalize a bit attempting to make it understandable, it is worth reading. If anyone is aware of gross errors, please let me know!

I am happy to report that two law schools have written up the subject far better and more thoroughly than I could ever attempt. Yes, law schools, whose students and faculties are fighting for our rights to use our own cultural and artistic heritage in new works, or simply to read, see or hear them. I could go on and on, but I won't because they have said it better.

First is the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Website. Go to their home page and click on "Overview" in the top bar, which will lead to dozens of links about Copyright, Fair Use and Public Domain. I have had some contact with Stanford these past ten years since I am one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing "Golan vs. Holder" case. The latest setback was in June 2010 as you can read about HERE. I should devote a column to this. In brief:

Plaintiffs brought this action challenging the constitutionality of Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (“URAA”), Pub. L. No. 103-465, § 514, 108 Stat. 4809, 4976–81 (1994) (codified as amended at 17 U.S.C. §§104A, 109), which granted copyright protection to various foreign works that were previously in the public domain in the United States.

We did not feel it was constitutional for the copyright law to be changed retroactively so that older films which we had been using as public domain, like "Triumph of the Will" and "Metropolis," were suddenly again protected by copyright. For the record, I do not think that was right! The next and final route for the appeal to repeal is the Supreme Court. Stanford Law School and students, to their great credit, do all the legal work at no charge to the plaintiffs since they feel it is a right fight for the good of the public.

More recently I have become aware of the superb website of the Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain. This is the "Must Read P.D." I refer to in my title. Go to their site. Spend hours. Read much. Learn more.

Here is an excerpt from "Public Domain Day, 2011": On the first day of each year, Public Domain Day celebrates the moment when copyrights expire. You can read more about Public Domain Day around the world at Communia's excellent site here. The films, photos, books and symphonies whose copyright term has finished become “free as the air to common use.” The end of the copyright on these works means that they enter the public domain, completing the copyright bargain.

Except this refers only to copyrighted works becoming public domain in Europe. In the USA, nothing ever changes. The corporate powers keep changing the copyright laws so they will own everything forever. Seems like it anyway. There is a whole lot more at the site, hours of reading, including a 75 page comic book that goes into the intricacies or making a documentary film these days because of all the rights, incidental logos and music and ringtones and on and on that might show up in the real world you are filming.

Anyone interested in public domain should explore this wonderful resource.



Visit my website at Festival Films