Public Domain
The Birth of a Nation
1915 · Epoch Producing Corp. · Dir. D.W. Griffith
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is definitively in the public domain in the United States. Under current US copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1928, have seen their statutory copyright terms expire. This film reached the end of its maximum 75-year term (under the 1976 Act) or 95-year term (under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) and entered the public domain on January 1, 1991.
Historically, the film was registered for copyright by the Epoch Producing Corp. on February 8, 1915 (LP4373). While the film's copyright was effectively renewed in 1942, the expiration of the 75-year protection window for works of that vintage is absolute. It is one of the most widely circulated public domain titles, appearing in countless budget DVD collections and hosted legally on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- U.S. Copyright Office, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures 1912–1939
- Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
- Library of Congress, Public Domain Film List
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.