Public Domain
Carnival of Souls
1962 · Harcourt Productions · Dir. Herk Harvey
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Carnival of Souls is a famous example of a film that entered the public domain due to a failure to follow the statutory requirements of the 1909 Copyright Act. The film's original release prints did not contain a valid copyright notice as required by US law at the time (specifically 17 U.S.C. § 10, § 19). Although the film was registered with the US Copyright Office by director Herk Harvey's production company, Harcourt Productions, on September 10, 1962 (registration number LP23101), the lack of proper notice on the distributed prints resulted in the work being injected into the public domain immediately upon publication.
Even if the notice had been valid, the copyright would have required renewal in the 28th year (1990) to maintain protection. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress online records (covering 1978 onwards) confirms that no renewal was ever filed by the original registrant or successors. Because it was a domestic US production published before 1964 without renewal and without proper notice, it is definitively public domain in the United States.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
- U.S. Copyright Office Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips (1962)
- Hurst, D. Richard Baer, Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1950-1959/1960-1969)
- Library of Congress (loc.gov) - Carnival of Souls public domain status notes
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.