Going by the list of movies, I would say no with the exception of Reefer Madness.
Considering how restrictive film rights are, I doubt this $5 game managed to pull it off.
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Looked more into it I hate sleep and there might more under certain conditions, but I can't verify the validity of the open sources. Personally, I don't think it is worth the gamble, but the dev thought otherwise.
I just realized I replied to myself instead of editing the previous comment ...
I'm going to bed.
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It looks like I posted 4 seconds too late :)
I'm not sure about the Three Stooges because I don't know what movie it is and it says "remastered". I wouldn't think any remastered version would be in the public domain. All of the other ones currently listed on the Steam store page are in the public domain.
The dev says that new movies will be added and that they are from the public domain. There are a few comments about it here.
There's 5 movies playing only 2 of them are horror at the moment but more movies will be coming to the theater every month. if you have a movie suggestion please let me know. It must be in the public domain copyright free :) you can see the list of moves on the store page.
Edit: I just did some reading and I believe I was wrong about restored versions of movies not being in the public domain. I thought when a company restored a movie and released their own version, they received a new copyright and their version was not part of the public domain, but apparently that is not how it works. They would only receive a new copyright on any new content added. If the film has not been altered in terms of content, the new restored version should also be in the public domain. If they create and add any of their own content, like special features or a different cut of the move, then I believe that content would have a new copyright.
It seems like this is a gray area of the law though and some companies may still try to fight you over the restoration being considered enough of a change to get a new copyright. I believe colorizing a film is enough to get a new copyright, but just a visual or audio quality "restoration" is not.
I am not any kind of legal expert, that is just what I have gathered from some random comments online talking about previous court cases.
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I was thinking the specific restored version you were using wouldn't be in the public domain because I thought they received a new copyright that was separate from the version in the public domain, but I believe I was wrong about that. I added an edit to my comment above.
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Depends who restored it I think. If it's in the Criterion collection, chances are there is a copyright on it but if not, there are some organizations and cinema schools that do it as a passion project.
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I don't think it matters who does the restoration. From what I have read, at least in the US, any restoration that just takes the original source material and creates a better quality product without making significant changes to the content will not be given a new copyright because they did not create anything new. Criterion may be able to copyright the menus, special features, audio commentary, or anything else new that they create, but the film itself will not get a new copyright just for providing a better visual and audio quality.
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Of course but a release on the Criterion collection tends to send a lot of people in the possible line of copyright succession checking their property.
Carnival of Souls was under copyright dispute for a long time but when the movie was released on dvd after restoration, the two parties found an agreement because they didn't want to miss on cashing out.
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Wouldn't it be easier to just let people play whatever they want in their movie theatre? (I mean legally of course, bear in mind that I have no idea what is easy or hard in developing a game as I am just a dumbass when it comes to that)
I mean... all the media players you can get online are not worrying about whether you have the right to be playing whatever you are playing through them because they are not the ones providing the content so they're covered.
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I like the idea of this, I wish I had it in the past.
Personally the game would be way better and give more possibilities if someone could stream to the screen a movie for friends to watch together, or use public online players/streaming like YouTube, just like Serviio and similar media servers do.
Good luck with you project!
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