Ask Dad

The film 'Ask Dad' (1929), starring Edward Everett Horton and directed by Hugh Yates, was released during the 1928–1963 era where US copyright protection required a manual renewal during the 28th year of the initial term. Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works that failed to renew their copyright effectively entered the public domain 28 years after their original registration. 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. Furthermore, 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939)' by D. Richard Baer verifies that the copyright for this production was not extended. Consequently, the film's copyright expired at the end of its first term in 1957. The film is widely recognized as public domain by film archives and is frequently included in public domain collections and on websites such as the Internet Archive without restriction. There is no evidence of underlying rights (such as a protected novel) that would prevent the film itself from residing in the public domain.