False Faces

The film False Faces, a 1943 production by Republic Pictures directed by George Sherman, entered the public domain in the United States because its copyright was not renewed as required by law. The film was originally registered for copyright on May 17, 1943, under registration number LP12104. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal filing with the U.S. Copyright Office during their 28th year to extend protection for a second term. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal record for this title or registration number. The copyright expired in 1971 at the end of its first 28-year term. This film is widely cited in public domain filmographies, such as 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939; 1940-1949)' by D. Richard Baer, as having failed to renew. It is currently available through various public domain distributors and archive sites without legal challenge from Paramount (the successor to the Republic library), which typically defends only the renewed portions of the catalog.