617 RD 1

Determining the copyright status of '617 RD 1' is difficult due to its nature as an experimental/underground short film. It was produced by Grosz-Gilday and is frequently associated with the New York film-maker cooperative scene of the late 1960s. For US works published between 1964 and 1977, copyright is secured by publication with a valid copyright notice. While the 1992 Copyright Renewal Act grants automatic renewal to works from this era, this only applies if the work was legally copyrighted in the first place through proper notice or registration. A search of the US Copyright Office records (CCE) for the period and the post-1978 online database yields no registration for a title '617 RD 1'. Furthermore, as an avant-garde short, it is highly probable that the original prints lacked the formal copyright notice required by the 1909 Act to secure federal protection. However, without a physical inspection of an original 16mm print or a definitive statement from a film archive like Anthology Film Archives, its status cannot be confirmed as public domain. It is currently categorized as uncertain because while no evidence of registration exists, the law of the era makes 'protected' the default only if technical formalities were followed at the time of publication.