Crop Chasers

The film 'Crop Chasers' is a Color Rhapsody animated short directed by Arthur Davis and produced by Screen Gems (Columbia Pictures). It was released in the United States on September 22, 1939. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal filing with the U.S. Copyright Office during the 28th year of their first copyright term to remain protected. I conducted a search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) for the original registration (likely registered in 1939 under Columbia Pictures Corp) and its corresponding renewal window (roughly 1966–1967). No renewal record was located for this specific title. While Columbia Pictures renewed many of its major features and later 'Color Rhapsody' entries, several early shorts from this era were allowed to lapse into the public domain. According to the 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894–1939)' by D. Richard Baer, this title is listed as a non-renewed work. Consequently, the film entered the public domain in the United States upon the expiration of its initial 28-year term in 1967.