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Poster: billbarstad Date: Apr 25, 2017 4:16am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Serials In The Public Domain

Remastered films can get a new copyright issued, and companies that do this always get one. So none of those movies are PD.

The best source for determining copyright status is copyright.gov. http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First

Various web sites purport to have determined the copyright of films and audio recordings. Some are better than others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page is one I remember. Beware.

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Poster: Moongleam Date: Apr 27, 2017 11:29pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Serials In The Public Domain

"Remastered films can get a new copyright issued, and companies that do this always get one."

I'm trying to make sure that I understand what "digitally remastered" means.

If a movie is on a DVD, then it is in a digital format. It has been transfered from film to a digital format. It has been digitally remastered. Is that correct?

All of the films here at the Archive have gone through that process.

Another process is the cleaning of old film. Video Cellar stated that that is "sweat of the brow" work, not creative work, and that consequently it is not copyrightable.

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Poster: billbarstad Date: Apr 28, 2017 3:50am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Serials In The Public Domain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remaster#Film_and_television Good point. If a copyright is applied for and granted then enough restoration must have been done to get it. Rethinking it, I assumed sufficient restoration is done in remastering, but this isn’t necessarily the case though remastering a film isn't just a digital transfer. So a remastered film isn't always copyrighted.
This post was modified by billbarstad on 2017-04-28 10:50:29

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Poster: mfta Date: Nov 8, 2017 12:04pm
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Serials In The Public Domain

"Creative" re-interpretation is the key.

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Poster: Moongleam Date: Apr 28, 2017 4:38am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Serials In The Public Domain

Interesting link. The software and the hardware that the pros use are, of course, more capable than what we use. However, even free software can do quite a bit.

An example was given of increasing the color intensity in the movie The Big Boss. The video transcoders that I use, ffmpeg and mencoder, can easily increase color saturation. Here's the video filter in ffmpeg that will do the trick:

hue=s=1.5

A value less than 1 would decrease the saturation.

It's also easy to adjust brightness and contrast, to convert a color video to black & white, and to add a sepia tint.

Those transcoders also have filters for reducing video noise (dirt and scratches). They definitely don't do a perfect job, but they help, and video denoising reduces the required bitrate. Here's the filter I used on the Stoney Burke episode that was just uploaded:

hqdn3d=3.0:2.25:5:3.75

mencoder even has a filter that will restore a non-rectangular picture back to its original rectangular shape. (An example of such a picture, I suppose, would be one produced by someone filming the screen at a theater.)

It would be great if Video Cellar would show up and give his opinion on copyrights on remastered films. A lot of what was described at that link seems to be "sweat of the brow", non-creative work.

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Poster: billbarstad Date: Apr 28, 2017 5:53am
Forum: feature_films Subject: Re: Serials In The Public Domain

I second your call to Video-Cellar's return to commenting.