A Jitney Elopement

A Jitney Elopement is a short silent film written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin during his tenure at the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. It was originally released in the United States on April 1, 1915. According to U.S. copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain regardless of whether they were renewed. Because this film was published in 1915, its statutory copyright term of 75 years (as extended by the 1976 Act) has expired, and it transitioned into the public domain no later than the end of 1990. Current law (the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) only protects works from 1928 onward. As a result of its public domain status, the film is widely available for free download and viewing on platforms like the Internet Archive and YouTube, and it has been released by numerous budget and specialty home video distributors without licensing from a centralized rights holder.