Dead Men Tell No Tales

The film 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' is a made-for-television thriller directed by Walter Grauman and originally broadcast on ABC on December 17, 1971. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, as amended, works published between 1964 and 1977 are subject to the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, which granted them automatic renewal of copyright for a second 47-year term. Therefore, no manual renewal filing was required in the 28th year to maintain protection. The film was registered with the US Copyright Office by Lancer Productions on January 5, 1972, under registration number LP40323. Because the film was produced during the automatic renewal era and has a documented primary registration, it remains under copyright protection in the United States. It will not enter the public domain until 95 years after its publication (January 1, 2027). As of current research, the rights are held or managed by entities related to the original broadcaster (ABC/Disney) or the production's successors. The film has seen commercial release on home video (including a MOD DVD release by Warner Archive, who handles much of the Lorimar/Lancer/ABC library), confirming it is not an orphan work. Note: generated without live web grounding (the grounded research engine was unavailable). Verify the cited sources independently before relying on this determination.