> Does anyone know of a reliable source that can help me verify some > of these titles? I'm sure Jessica Rosner is correct that no 100% reliable list exists. But how reliable you need your info to be depends on your purpose. If it's a research question: you want to write about films that have fallen into the public domain, you would certainly be able to discuss films that appear on several lists, with attribution: e.g. 'while definitive information on copyright status is often elusive, and some works can be brought back into copyright, these works are widely considered to now be in the public domain.' If, on the other hand, you want to DO something with the films: show them, use bits of them as examples, or make found footage art out of them, you probably have little to worry about anyway because: 1) your purpose might be covered by Fair Use anyway, 2) as an academic you're not really worth suing -- the attorneys have much bigger fish to fry. Either way, a few things one might do to find out more about what is and isn't PD. Check the catalogs of Alpha Video and other distributors of ultra- cheapo DVDs. I think all their titles are PD, especially anything that has come out from several different distributors (e.g. Meet John Doe). First, anything that is being distributed in this manner is functionally PD, and second if some copyright holder shows up they'll be going after these distributors, not anything you might have done with the films. If you have questions about specific titles that appear on one list or another, especially for shorts, docs, industrials... check The Internet Archive. Anything there is generally labeled with pretty accurate rights info. Finally, you can check the work of the Orphan Film people, Dan Streible at NYU, and the programs of the Orphan Fiulm Symposiums. The Orphan Film concept being works that are still in copyright but have been abandoned or whose rights holders cannot be identified, the 'Orphanistas' have pretty good info on what's PD, and what's just in limbo. ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu