The Choppers

The Choppers was released in 1961 and is governed by the 1909 Copyright Act. Under this law, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a copyright renewal with the U.S. Copyright Office during the 28th year of the first term to maintain protection. For a 1961 release, a renewal filing would have been due in 1989. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the U. Penn online Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), and the U.S. Copyright Office online records (covering registrations from 1978 onward) reveals no renewal registration for this title or its production company, Rushmore Productions. While an original registration (LP20876) was filed on August 15, 1961, the failure to renew causes the work to fall into the public domain. Furthermore, 'The Choppers' is widely documented as being in the public domain by reputable sources, including its inclusion in numerous 'PD' film collections from distributors like Alpha Video and Mill Creek, and its unrestricted availability on the Internet Archive and various public domain streaming platforms. The film's status is frequently cited in lists of 1960s exploitation films that lapsed into the public domain due to administrative oversight.