The Lonedale Operator

The Lonedale Operator is a classic silent short film directed by D.W. Griffith and produced by the Biograph Company. It was released in March 1911. Under current United States copyright law, the maximum term of protection for works published or registered before 1928 has expired. Specifically, all works published in the United States prior to January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain regardless of whether they were originally registered or renewed. As a 1911 release, this film's statutory copyright term (including all possible extensions under the 1909 and 1976 Acts) concluded no later than 75 years after publication, and it definitively moved into the public domain on January 1, 1987. It is widely available for free download and reuse via the Internet Archive and the Library of Congress.