Guilty Bystander

The film 'Guilty Bystander', directed by Joseph Lerner, was released in the United States in 1950 and registered for copyright on February 10, 1950, by Laurel Films, Inc., under registration number LP2919. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works from this era were granted an initial 28-year term of protection, which required a manual renewal filing during the 28th year to extend protection for an additional term. A thorough search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no renewal record for this title. The copyright would have needed to be renewed in 1977 or 1978; however, no such filing by Laurel Films or any successor in interest was found. Because the copyright was not renewed, the film entered the public domain in the United States at the end of its first 28-year term (December 31, 1978). This is further supported by the film's presence in several public domain film catalogs and its availability through distributors specializing in lapse-copyright titles such as Alpha Video and Sinister Cinema.