The Living Ghost

The Living Ghost was released by Monogram Pictures in 1942 and was originally registered for copyright under number LP11631 on October 23, 1942. Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works from this era required a manual renewal during the 28th year of their initial term to remain protected. A thorough search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, the Penn online CCE, and the Film Superlist (Hurst/Baer) shows no record of a renewal filing by Monogram or any successor in interest (such as Allied Artists) between 1969 and 1971. Because the copyright was not renewed within the statutory window, the film entered the public domain in the United States upon the expiration of its first term at the end of 1970. This finding is reinforced by the film's widespread presence in public domain DVD collections from labels like Alpha Video and its availability on Archive.org without takedown, common indicators for unrestored Monogram library titles that were abandoned by the studio.