[Kip Currier: Yesterday, while updating a public domain lecture for my IP graduate course and having just read this interesting piece in the PittWire about this week's 50th anniversary of the seminal 1968 zombie horror film Night of the Living Dead's world premiere at Pittsburgh's then-Fulton Theater, I came across this fascinating 2017 7-minute Night of the Living Dead - Horrors of Copyright video and played it in class for my students. The video shows how the unforgiving get-it-right-the-first-time-or-else federal copyright registration requirements of the U.S.'s pre-1976 Copyright Act registration system resulted in Night of the Living Dead entering the public domain, due to an unintended mistake by persons associated with the George R. Romero-directed film.
One of the most illustrative and informative aspects of the video is a comparison of the public domain-dwelling-ghouls-cum-zombies in Night of the Living Dead with the 1818-published Frankenstein of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley that inspired the Frankenstein's monster portrayed and popularized by famed actor Boris Karloff in the 1931 James Whale-directed classic. As the Horrors of Copyright video points out, Karloff's iconic expression of Shelley's 19th century Frankenstein is still owned by Universal today and still protected under U.S. copyright law because of the longer copyright protection periods of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 and the 20-year copyright-extending Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.]
"Zombies are everywhere, with blockbuster TV shows like The Walking Dead and in Game of Thrones, and films such as 28 Days Later, World War Z, Zombieland, and many others. That popularity stems directly from George R. Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. A new video essay from Kristian Williams delves into how one mistake with the film’s release led to the renaissance of zombie stories that terrify and entertain us.
That popularity is due in part to the fact that when Night of the Living Dead was released, its distributor forgot to place a copyright indicator when it changed the title from Night of the Flesh Eaters to its current moniker. According to copyright law at the time, leaving that symbol and the year off meant that it entered the public domain. “The film’s entry into the public domain became the ultimate distribution tool,” says Williams, because theaters, video stores, and TV stations could air it at no cost.
Here, you can watch it right now on YouTube, or download it off of the Internet Archive..."
