The Man Who Cheated Himself

The film was released in late 1950 and registered for US copyright on February 2, 1951, by Jack M. Warner Productions, Inc. (Registration No. LP692). Specifically, under the laws governing works published between 1928 and 1963, a copyright had to be renewed during the 28th year of the first term to remain protected. For a 1951 registration, the renewal window was open in 1978 and 1979. A search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress (USCO) online records confirms that no renewal was filed for this title. The film is consistently listed as public domain in authoritative industrial references, including David Pierce's 'Motion Picture Copyrights and Renewals 1950–1959' and the 'Film Superlist' series by D. Richard Baer. Because the renewal was not filed, the work fell into the public domain on January 1, 1980. While the film was famously restored by the Film Noir Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2017/2018, this restoration (distributed by Flicker Alley) creates a new copyright in the specific restoration/transfer only; it does not restore or extend the copyright of the underlying 1950 motion picture, which remains in the public domain.