A Corny Concerto

A Corny Concerto was originally released on September 25, 1943, as part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions for Warner Bros. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first term to maintain protection for a second term. For a 1943 release, this renewal window was in 1970 or 1971. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this specific cartoon. While Warner Bros. renewed many of its later color cartoons, a significant number of their early-to-mid 1940s shorts, including many directed by Bob Clampett, fell into the public domain due to clerical oversight or a decision not to renew. The film's public domain status is widely recognized in the film industry and legal scholarship. It is frequently included in public domain cartoon compilations by third-party distributors such as Alpha Video and Mill Creek Entertainment, and is hosted on the Internet Archive without takedown notices. Because the first term expired without renewal, the work entered the public domain in 1971.