Public Domain
Moonshine
1918 · Comique Film Corporation · Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle
A feud between the Owens and the Gillettes ends when the last remaining Gillette is killed, but new trouble erupts for the mountain folk with the arrival of a U.S. revenue agent and his assistant.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The film 'Moonshine', starring Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, was released on May 13, 1918. According to US copyright law, all works published or registered in the United States before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain regardless of their renewal status or country of origin.
Because this film was published in 1918, its maximum 95-year term of copyright protection expired and it entered the public domain on January 1, 1994. No further search of renewal records at the Stanford Database or the Catalog of Copyright Entries is necessary to establish its status, as the 1928 cutoff is a definitive 'bright line' rule for public domain status in the United States.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- https://archive.org/details/moonshine-1918
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0009386/
- 17 U.S.C. § 304(b)
- BFI Film & TV Database: Moonshine (1918)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.