Public Domain
Shadows
1922 · Preferred Pictures · Dir. Tom Forman
Yen Sin, a humble Chinese, is washed ashore after a storm and finds himself an outsider in the deeply Christian fishing community of Urkey. Yen Sin elects to stay, despite his status as a despised 'heathen', only to reveal hypocrisy amid the self-righteous township.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
Shadows, directed by Tom Forman and starring Lon Chaney, was released in the United States on November 10, 1922. Under current U.S. copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1929, have entered the public domain regardless of renewal history or ownership.
As of January 1, 1998, the copyright term for works from 1922 would have expired (75 years). Even with the extensions provided by the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 (Sonny Bono Act), which extended the term for works published between 1923 and 1977, works from 1922 and earlier were already in the public domain or reached the end of their maximum 75-year term before the extension could take effect. Therefore, this film is definitively in the public domain in the United States.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 15a: Duration of Copyright
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films, Shadows (1922)
- Hurst, Richard Maurice. Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939)
- IMDb: Shadows (1922)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.