Laughing Gas

The film 'Laughing Gas' (also known as 'Laffing Gas'), starring Charlie Chaplin and directed by him for Keystone Studios, was released in the United States on July 9, 1914. Under current U.S. copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain due to the expiration of the statutory copyright term. Since this film was published in 1914, its maximum 95-year protection period expired no later than 2009. Furthermore, early Keystone comedies were rarely maintained through the rigorous renewal requirements of the 1909 Act, though renewal status is moot for a 1914 work. As a pre-1928 production, the film is now ineligible for copyright protection in the United States, and its status is confirmed by the Library of Congress and the Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain.