Every Man His Own Cigar Lighter

The film 'Every Man His Own Cigar Lighter' was produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company and registered for US copyright on September 19, 1903 (registration number H35967). It was filmed by G.W. Bitzer and is a short comedy about a man attempting to light a cigar with a faulty mechanism. Under current US copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain due to the expiration of the statutory term of protection (95 years from publication). Since this work was registered in 1903, its copyright expired no later than the end of 1978 (under the 1909 Act's 56-year maximum of two 28-year terms) or 1998 (if it had survived to the 1976/1998 extensions), though in practice, any work from this era is definitively public domain regardless of renewal status.