Public Domain
The Garage
1920 · Comique Film Corporation · Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle
Roscoe and Buster operate a combination garage and fire station. In the first half they destroy a car left for them to clean. In the second half they go off on a false alarm and return to find their own building on fire.
Confidence
100
— Legal Reasoning —
Why this status applies
The Garage is a silent short film starring Buster Keaton and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, released on January 11, 1920. According to the United States copyright law, every work published before January 1, 1928, has officially entered the public domain in the United States, regardless of whether copyright was renewed.
This specific film was the final collaboration between Arbuckle and Keaton under the Comique banner. Because it reached the end of its maximum possible statutory term (previously 75 years, extended to 95 years by the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act) and the 1928 cutoff has now passed, all legal protections in the U.S. have expired. The film is widely available on public domain archives and through numerous third-party distributors without licensing from the original production entity.
— Cited Sources —
Supporting facts
- https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf
- https://archive.org/details/TheGarage1919
- AFI Catalog of Feature Films (Silent Film Era)
- Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1894-1939)
Research summary based on cited sources, not legal advice. Always consult a qualified copyright attorney before commercial use.