D.O.A.

D.O.A. is one of the most famous examples of a high-profile film noir falling into the public domain due to a failure to renew its copyright. The film was originally registered with the US Copyright Office by Cardinal Pictures, Inc. on December 21, 1949 (LP2737). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a formal renewal filing during the 28th year of the initial term to maintain protection. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals that no renewal was filed in 1977 or 1978 (the 28-year window). Because the renewal was missed, the copyright expired at the end of its first 28-year term, and the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 1978. This status is widely documented in legal literature and film history resources, such as the Film Superlist and the AFI Catalog of Feature Films. The film has been widely distributed for decades by dozens of 'public domain' labels including Alpha Video and Mill Creek, and it is available for free download on the Internet Archive without restriction, which further confirms its status. While the 1988 remake of the same name remains under copyright, the original 1950 production is definitively in the public domain.