Is Rankin-Bass Jack Forst Public Domain?

The debate goes on about low class Public Domain companies putting out animation that may well be in copyright.

Hi there, Larry.

I'm not a copyright attorney, nor do I play one on TV, but I've seen Jack Frost in so many dollar bins from so many PD companies - including the more respectable ones - that I've always assumed that it **is** PD. Numerous websites also report its PD status.

However, IMDB reports that it's from 1979, so unless Rankin-Bass entirely forgot to register the copyright, spalterego is probably right. My mistake - I thought it was older than that.

Now I'm curious as well. Maybe everyone has been confusing it with the Iwerks cartoon? I've written to the guys at http://www.rankinbass.com/ to see what they know about it.

Perhaps it was a lack of lawyerly response to the Jack Frost discs that led EastWest to conclude that The Hobbit and Return of the King were also fair game?

Eric

I understand the PD companies bringing out a movie over and over again making you think that the movie is in Public Domain. But if Forst is 1979 the new 1976 Copyright law came into affect on January 1st 1979 so it would still be in copyright and with the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act it will remain in copyright for 70 years after the death of the creator or the last surviving creator.

This would put Jack Forst squarely in copyright for a very, very long time. And since you do not have to register under the new copyright law to have copyright it would still be covered. Sounds like Rankin and Bass need to get their lawyers busy getting damages from these slime. Removing copyright notice from a film you steal is not the same as not knowing.