Chinatown After Dark

Chinatown After Dark (1931) is in the public domain in the United States because the copyright was not renewed as required by the Copyright Act of 1909. For works published between 1928 and 1963, a renewal filing was mandatory during the 28th year of the initial copyright term to extend protection for a second term. The film was originally registered by Action Pictures on September 8, 1931 (LP2499). A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) indicates that no renewal was filed in 1958 or 1959 by the original claimant or its successors. Furthermore, the film is listed in 'Film Superlist: 1894-1939' as a title for which the copyright lapsed into the public domain. It is currently distributed by several public domain labels such as Alpha Video and Sinister Cinema, and it is available for free download on the Internet Archive without copyright challenges.