Bait

The film 'Bait' was produced by Hugo Haas Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures, with a copyright registration date of February 24, 1954 (LP3581). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a formal renewal with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term to extend protection to a second 67-year term. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress (CCE) records confirms that no renewal was filed for this motion picture. The original copyright would have required renewal in 1981 or 1982. The 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1950-1959)' by David Pierce also lists this title as having failed to renew, effectively causing it to fall into the public domain upon the expiration of its initial 28-year term. Because the film was a US production and the copyright was not maintained according to the statutory requirements of the time, it is now in the public domain in the United States. Its widespread availability on budget 'public domain' DVD labels like Alpha Video further corroborates this status.