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Poster: akb Date: Mar 16, 2006 11:33pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Birth of a Nation, was Re: Some Movies need to be moved ...

I'm pretty sure that the Dave Shepard version of Birth of a Nation is copyrighted as a restoration. Have you checked the Copyright Office database for this specific version?

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Poster: k-otic Date: Mar 17, 2006 6:49am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Birth of a Nation, was Re: Some Movies need to be moved ...

I asked Skip about this title and he said that Birth of a Nation is in the Public Domain
I didn`t know that there were more than this one version

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Poster: akb Date: Mar 17, 2006 9:02am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Birth of a Nation, was Re: Some Movies need to be moved ...

I thought the David Shepard DVD, which is what I'm inferring you uploaded, was based on his 1993 restoration which got released on Laserdisc. It is my understanding that that version is registered under his company Film Preservation Associates.

But I really don't know. I'd be curious to hear a line of reasoning on this.

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Poster: A/V Geek Skip Date: Mar 18, 2006 3:56am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Birth of a Nation, was Re: Some Movies need to be moved ...

Sorry for the confusion.

The original film is public domain, but the musical score is definitely under copyright. I'll see if the restoration was copyrighted. There is a precedent of PD works being copyrighted - colorized versions of PD films can be copyrighted, for example.

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