Public Domain
A Girl's Folly
1917 · Paragon Films / World Film Corp. · Dir. Maurice Tourneur
A restless young girl yearns to leave her rural environment and "get away from it all". One day she stumbles upon a film crew shooting a western near her home. She makes friends with the film's leading man, who encourages her to try her luck as an actress. So she leaves her small town and goes to the big city to break into the picture business. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'A Girl's Folly,' directed by Maurice Tourneur, was released in the United States in early 1917. According to United States copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have seen their statutory copyright terms expire.
Under the 1909 Copyright Act, the maximum term of protection was 56 years (an initial 28-year term plus a 28-year renewal). Even if the copyright for this film had been properly registered and renewed, the protection would have lapsed no later than 1973. Since then, the copyright law has been amended, but those extensions did not restore copyright to works already in the public domain. Therefore, the film is definitively in the public domain in the United States.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Library of Congress: Catalog of Copyright Entries (Motion Pictures 1912–1939)
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films (1893–1993)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice, 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain 1894–1939'
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.