Velvet Smooth

Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works published between 1964 and 1977 do not require renewal; however, they still required a valid copyright notice on the release prints to secure protection. Many low-budget independent films from this era, particularly within the blaxploitation genre, failed this technical requirement. Investigation of the Library of Congress and US Copyright Office online and secondary records (Catalog of Copyright Entries) shows no copyright registration was filed for 'Velvet Smooth' at the time of its release. Furthermore, the film is widely recognized as being in the public domain and is legally distributed by several low-cost 'PD' specialty labels such as Alpha Video and Mill Creek Entertainment. It is also available for high-quality streaming and public download on the Internet Archive without takedowns from any successor-in-interest. The lack of an original registration or notice in the expected CCE period (1976-1977) for this US production places it in the public domain for failure to comply with formalites under the 1909 Act.