Rosita

Under the Copyright Act of 1909 and the subsequent Copyright Term Extension Act, works published before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain in the United States. 'Rosita', directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Mary Pickford, was released on September 3, 1923, and saw its maximum 75-year copyright term (later extended to 95 years for certain works) expire at the end of 1998. Historically, Mary Pickford herself was known to have disliked the film, famously describing it as 'the worst mistake of my career.' This led to her allowing the copyright to lapse and even allegedly suppressing the film's circulation, resulting in it being considered a lost film for decades until a nitrate print was discovered in the Soviet film archives (Gosfilmofond). Regardless of the renewal status that would have been required in the 1950s, the film's age now places it definitively in the public domain due to the expiration of the statutory term for all 1923 publications.