Gung Ho!

The film 'Gung Ho!' (subtitled 'The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders') was originally registered for copyright by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. on December 23, 1943 (LP12437). Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works registered between 1928 and 1963 required a manual renewal filing with the US Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term to extend protection for a second term. For a 1943 release, this renewal window was in 1970–1971. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the U Penn online Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), and David Pierce's 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals 1950–1959' (and 1940-1949 supplements) confirms that no renewal was filed for this motion picture. While the film is a well-known production and remains widely available, the failure to renew the copyright in the early 1970s caused the work to expire and enter the public domain after its initial 28-year term. Because the film is in the public domain, it is frequently found in multi-film 'PD' collections (such as those from Mill Creek or Alpha Video) and is available for free download on the Internet Archive without takedowns from Universal or any successor-in-interest. The lack of US copyright renewal is also documented in the 'Film Superlist' catalogs by D. Richard Baer.