Public Domain
Domestic Difficulties
1916 · Gaiety comedies · Dir. Bud Fisher
Animation from the Mut and Jeff series is a bit crude in it's movement and it's wife with rolling pin humor but even now it's passably amusing.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'Domestic Difficulties', released in 1916 (directed by Ben Turpin and released through Gaiety comedies), is in the public domain in the United States. Under current US copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1928, have seen their copyright terms expire regardless of renewal or registration status.
Because this work predates the 1928 threshold, it transitioned into the public domain on the 75th anniversary of its publication (under the previous law) and its status was finalized by the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act. No further lookup in the Stanford Renewal Database or the Library of Congress catalog is required to confirm this status.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0006603/
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.