Just to show that none of this copyright/public domain stuff is new,
Charlie Chaplin, one of the first people to realize the value of film and
retain the copyright himself, even had a problem with it.  He produced _The
Gold Rush_ in 1925 and copyrighted it, and then in 1942 (or thereabouts)
decided to rerelease it.  To accommodate sound, he added a musical track he
wrote, and replaced the title cards with a new narration that he spoke.  The
copyright he took out on the film in the '40s covered the that version, but
it didn't cover the original silent version.  That's why today you can buy
the '40s version, which is controlled by Chaplin's estate, from one distrib-
utor, or you can buy a silent version from just about anyone.
 
Jay Rozgonyi
Fairfield University