Metropolis

Metropolis (1927) is a notable case of copyright restoration under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). Originally, the film entered the public domain in the United States in 1955 because the copyright was not renewed in the 28th year following its initial US registration (registered by Paramount on March 5, 1927, LP23722). For several decades, it was widely distributed as a public domain work. However, the passage of the URAA (17 U.S.C. § 104A) in 1994 restored the US copyright of certain foreign works that were in the public domain for technical failures (like failure to renew) but were still under copyright in their source country on the date of restoration (January 1, 1996 for Germany). Because Metropolis was still protected in Germany, its US copyright was automatically restored. The Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation (Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung) currently manages the rights and has actively enforced them, notably through its licensing agreements for the 2010 'Complete Metropolis' restoration.