Butter Fingers

Under the current laws of the United States, specifically the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain. This film, a two-reel comedy directed by Del Lord and starring Billy Bevan, was released on June 14, 1925, as a Mack Sennett production distributed by Pathé Exchange. Because the film was published in 1925, its maximum 95-year copyright term (calculated as 75 years under the 1976 Act plus 20 years under the 1998 Act) expired on January 1, 2021. No renewal analysis is necessary for works from this era as their protection has reached the absolute statutory limit, regardless of whether a renewal was filed in the 28th year of the original term.