Foolish Wives

Under current US copyright law, the status of films released before 1928 is straightforward: all such works have entered the public domain regardless of whether they were originally registered or renewed. Foolish Wives was released by Universal Pictures on January 11, 1922. Even under the previous 1909 Act, which required a 28-year initial term and a 28-year renewal, the maximum possible protection for a 1922 film would have expired at the end of 1978. Following the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, which set the duration for works published between 1922 and 1977 at 95 years from publication, the film's copyright would have expired no later than January 1, 1998. As a result, the film is definitively in the public domain in the United States and has been for decades.