Shotgun Law
PUBLIC DOMAIN FYI
Fetch!
Brute Force poster
Public Domain

Brute Force

1914 · Biograph Company · Dir. D.W. Griffith

A thin gent in formal wear, amid a club or party, reads a book about primitive man after he's ignored by a pretty lady. We see the book enacted: Weakhands loses his girlfriend to Bruteforce, but chances upon a design for a weapon to vanquish his rival and win her back. His tribe sees this and sets him up as their leader. With the club, he fends off various creatures (a winged lizard, a snake, a dinosaur) and a rival tribe led by Monkeywalk. The women even manage to repel an attack. But the rival tribe discovers the secret of the club themselves, and capture the women. Weakhands, sitting in despair, chances upon a new weapon: the bow and arrow.

Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —

Why this status applies

The film 'Brute Force' (also known under the working title 'In Prehistoric Days'), directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Robert Harron and Mae Marsh, was released on April 27, 1914. Under US copyright law, any work published or registered before January 1, 1928, is definitively in the public domain. This film was produced and distributed by the Biograph Company more than a decade prior to that cutoff. At the time of its release, the maximum duration of copyright protection was 56 years (an initial 28-year term plus a 28-year renewal), which would have caused the copyright to expire no later than 1970 even if it had been renewed. As the work predates 1928, it transitioned into the public domain naturally upon the expiration of its statutory term and remains there regardless of the current status of the original production company or its successors.
— Cited Sources —

Supporting facts

  • Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912–1939
  • AFI Catalog of Feature Films (The First 100 Years 1893–1993)
  • Internet Archive - Biograph Collection
  • IMDb - Brute Force (1914)

Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.