The Unholy Four

The Unholy Four (released in the UK as 'A Stranger Came Home') was a 1954 British production co-produced by Hammer and Lippert Pictures. Under the copyright laws in effect at the time, works published between 1928 and 1963 required a renewal of copyright in the 28th year of the first term to maintain US protection. Search of the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE) reveals no record of a renewal filing. A registration was originally made on September 24, 1954 (Registration No. LP4056) by Exclusive Films, Ltd., but the copyright was not renewed in 1982 or 1983 as required. Because the film was first published in the US (via Lippert Pictures) with a valid copyright notice and local registration, and that registration was allowed to expire, it entered the public domain in the United States. Furthermore, while the URAA (1996) can restore copyright to foreign works that were in the public domain for failure to comply with US formalities, it only applies if the work was still under copyright in its source country on the restoration date. In the UK, films of this era typically were protected for 50 years from the end of the year of release (expiring Dec 31, 2004). However, as a 'shared' production with a US company (Lippert) and a simultaneous US publication, it is generally treated as a domestic work for copyright purpose in the US, exempting it from URAA restoration. The film is widely distributed today by public domain labels such as Alpha Video and Sinister Cinema.