Affair in Havana

Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the U.S. Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first copyright term to maintain protection. 'Affair in Havana' was registered for copyright by Dudley Pictures Corp. on October 1, 1957, under registration number LP9336. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal registration for this title. The copyright would have needed to be renewed in 1984 or 1985 (the 28th year). Because the claimant failed to renew the registration, the film entered the public domain in the United States upon the expiration of its first term on January 1, 1986. The film's public domain status is further supported by its presence in the catalogs of known public domain distributors such as Alpha Video and its widespread availability on archive.org without copyright challenges. It is also listed as public domain in 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1950-1959)' by David Pierce.