Multilayered Works

With regard to the works from January 1, 1928 to December 31, 1963, it is important to determine if the work is a multilayered work. That is, it contains more than one copyright. If so, you will need to gather facts about the status of each copyright contained within the work. A good place to start is by looking at the original copyright notice. Often other works might be listed.

The most common type of work to be multilayered is motion pictures. For this, we will use the American Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, and examine how it fell into, and then (in essence), back out of the public domain.

It's a Wonderful Life

When it was first released, It’s a Wonderful Life was not a success story at the box office, but it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Then, 28 years later, probably due to a clerical error, a renewal registration was not sent in and the film fell into the public domain. Television stations, who are always searching for royalty-free content to air, began playing the film over and over again during the holiday season, thus turning it into a classic. But then in 1993, using a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in a separate case, Republic Picture—who owned the copyright to the story upon which the film was based, The Greatest Gift—began sending out notices of copyright claim letters to television stations. This made them aware of their copyrights in other parts of the film.

So, the film itself is in the public domain, but the story and music are not. That is why above it is stated "in essence"; this film has been taken back out of the public domain. The permission must first be granted from the copyright holder to show the film.

1947 copyright notice for It's a Wonderful Life

By examining the original copyright, it can be clearly seen that it mentions that the film is based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern and that the musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin.