Check and Double Check

The film was originally registered for copyright by RKO Productions, Inc. on October 25, 1930, under registration number LP1698. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal filing with the U.S. Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term to extend protection to the second term. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the Penn online Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), and David Pierce's renewal records indicates that no renewal was filed for this motion picture. The film entered the public domain in the United States upon the expiration of its first 28-year term in 1958. Because the film is in the public domain, the creation of derivative works such as 4K resolution upscales, 60FPS frame interpolation, and colorization is legally permissible, though these specific technical modifications may carry their own thin layer of copyright for the new creative choices (the underlying film remains public domain). The film is widely listed in the 'Film Superlist' as a public domain title and is frequently distributed by public domain specialists like Alpha Video and Mill Creek.