Cut It Out

The film 'Cut It Out' (1925), a comedy directed by Grover Jones and starring Vernon Dent, is definitively in the public domain in the United States. Under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the subsequent Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, all works published before January 1, 1928, have seen their statutory copyright terms expire as of January 1, 2023. At the time of its release, the maximum duration of copyright for this film was 95 years from the date of publication (assuming valid registration and renewal); however, the expiration of the 95-year window for works from 1925 occurred on January 1, 2021. Even if the film had been properly registered with the Library of Congress and its copyright renewed 28 years later, it would now belong to the public domain. This film is listed in various databases, such as the AFI Catalog and the IMDb, as a mid-1920s short subject, and no current active copyright claim exists that could supersede the pre-1928 expiration rule.