The Sunbeam

The film 'The Sunbeam', directed by D.W. Griffith and produced by the Biograph Company, was released in the United States on March 11, 1912. The copyright status of this film is determined by the term of protection for works published before 1928. Under current U.S. copyright law (specifically the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998), all works published in the United States prior to January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain. This occurs regardless of whether a copyright registration was filed or whether a renewal was sought, as the maximum possible 95-year term for works of this vintage has expired. As of January 1, 2008, all works from 1912 reached the end of their statutory protection period. Consequently, 'The Sunbeam' is definitively in the public domain in the United States. It is widely available in public domain archives, including the Internet Archive and various Library of Congress collections, due to its status as a foundational early silent film.