The Usurer

The film 'The Usurer' was released on August 15, 1910, directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Company. As a work published in the United States prior to January 1, 1928, it has entered the public domain regardless of its original registration or renewal status. Under the current US copyright law, the maximum protection period for works published before 1928 has expired (95 years from publication), placing all such works in the public domain as of January 1, 2023. Biograph films from this era were originally registered as paper prints for copyright protection, but even if the copyright had been maintained and renewed, it would have expired no later than 1985 (75 years after publication under the 1976 Act) or 2005 (under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act). Therefore, there is no ambiguity regarding its status.