The Renunciation

The film 'The Renunciation' was directed by D.W. Griffith and released by the Biograph Company on July 19, 1909. Under U.S. copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain regardless of whether they were originally registered or renewed. At the time of its release, the maximum possible duration of copyright protection was 56 years (an initial 28-year term plus a 28-year renewal). Even if the copyright had been perfectly maintained, it would have expired no later than 1965. Because it predates the 1928 cutoff established by the Copyright Term Extension Act, its legal status is definitively public domain in the United States.