Slips and Slackers

Determining the copyright status of 'Slips and Slackers' (1917) falls under the simplest rule of US copyright law. The film was released in early 1917 by Vitagraph and stars Larry Semon. Under US copyright law (17 USC § 304), any work published before January 1, 1928, has reached the end of its maximum possible copyright term (95 years). Because this film was released in 1917, its copyright expired no later than the end of 1992 (75 years after publication, as per the law at the time), and it currently resides in the public domain. No renewal search is required for works of this vintage as they are universally public domain in the United States.