Image: Chaplin the gold rush boot

Description: Cropped publicity still for Charlie Chaplin's 1925 film The Gold Rush. The stock code in the left hand corner of the original confirms that this was a publicity still. Such images were taken on set during filming, or as part of an organized photo-shoot, by a studio photographer. They were then disseminated to the media and the public to promote the film (see Film still). Public domain explanation It is unlikely that this image was secured with copyright protection, as stated by film industry expert Gerald Mast in Film Study and the Copyright Law (1989) p. 87: "According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills ... Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible." If there is any chance that the photograph was copyrighted, under the terms of the 1909 Copyright Act (which was law until 1978) it would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication. Copyright renewal records for artwork in 1953 find no trace of any images from The Gold Rush: [1] [2]
Title: Chaplin the gold rush boot
Credit: Doctor Macro
Author: United Artists (work for hire)
Permission: This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. Unless its author has been dead for the required period, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada (50 pma), Mainland China (50 pma, not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 pma), Mexico (100 pma), Switzerland (70 pma), and other countries with individual treaties. See Commons:Hirtle chart for further explanation. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | 한국어 | македонски | português | português do Brasil | русский | українська | +/−
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No