Conspiracy

The film 'Conspiracy' (1930), directed by Christy Cabanne and produced by RKO Radio Pictures, is in the public domain in the United States due to non-renewal of copyright. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published before 1964 required a manual renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first copyright term to extend protection to a second term. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals that while the film was originally registered for copyright on August 10, 1930 (Registration Number LP1522), no renewal record exists for this title or its underlying registration. The renewal window for this film opened in 1957 and closed at the end of 1958; because the copyright was not extended, it expired and the work entered the public domain. This finding is corroborated by 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939)' by D. Richard Baer, which lists the film as having a lapsed copyright. Additionally, the film is frequently distributed by public domain specialists and is available on the Internet Archive without copyright restriction.