As everyone knows, It’s A Wonderful Life had lost its copyright in the past and somehow got it back. How did all this happen and what was the legal reasoning behind it? We’ve got the answers!
When It’s A Wonderful Life was first released, it was considered to be a box office disappointment. RKO let the film’s producer- Liberty Films- hold onto the copyright and it went to Paramount when Paramount Pictures purchased Liberty Films. In the 1950’s, Liberty Films was sold but the specific rights to this film were sold to a company named NTA. NTA would hold onto the rights until the 1970’s when it forgot to renew the copyright due to a clerical error.
At this point, it is probably a good time to discuss copyright laws of the time. Originally, copyrights had to be officially registered with the U.S. copyright office in order to be valid. Additionally, these copyrights had to be renewed, typically every seven years. NTA’s failure to renew the copyright put its film into the public domain; or so it seemed. The film was actually based on a short story named The Greatest Gift whose copyright had actually been renewed by the author. When the picture had gone into the public domain, the short story’s copyright was still enforceable, so a local station wishing to air the film would still have to pay that license fee, which was much cheaper than it would have been to license the film itself. That’s when the film’s popularity exploded, fueled by its countless airings as a cheap time filler for television.
Eventually, copyright law would change to what it is today. Copyrights are now automatically granted upon publication of the work. While copyright holders do not have to register their works with the copyright office, they can only collect damages from infringement if the work is registered. This still came too late for It’s A Wonderful Life, since it only applied to works with a valid copyright at the time of the rule change, which the film did not have. In the late 1980’s Republic Pictures, which was the successor entity to Liberty Films, bought the still active copyright to The Greatest Gift and began a legal gambit to re-activate the film’s copyright by claiming that since it now owned the copyright to the original work, it also owned the copyright to any derivative works, including It’s A Wonderful Life. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed and It’s A Wonderful Life went out of the public domain.
