Question about the Mitchell and Kenyon film

[chronovision]

Hi, Are there any restrictions or copyrights on the Mitchell and Kenyon company films?
thank you so much

[AndyJ]

Hi chronovision and welcome to the forums,

Let's deal with the original film stock which was recorded, as I understand it, on nitrate negative film. All films made before the 1956 Copyright Act came into force were treated as if they were a series of individual photographs, and if the film had a sound track this was treated as a sound recording. If the film depicted a drama or fictional events etc then the script or screenplay would be treated as a literary work or a work of drama. Thus there maybe three separate elements to consider.

Taking the most diffcult of these first, if there was a dramatic work or a work of literature (eg a script) involved then copyright in the scripted element will have lasted for the lifetime of the authors of the script plus fifty years after their death. As I understand things, Mitchell and Kenyon produced both actualité fims and dramas, and the dramas tended to be the later films, with the last film being produced in 1913. I have no information of who might have authored these scripts. If they were anonymously authored, then copyright will have lasted for fifty years from the date the films were released for public viewing, which assuming this was around 1914 or earlier, means that copyright in the scripts has now lapsed. However if the authors were named, or indeed were known to be either Mitchell or Kenyon themselves, the copyright in the script needs to be calculated from their deaths. Kenyon died in1925 so if he was the sole author his copyright would have ended on 1 January 1976. However if Sagar Mitchell was the sole author or wrote the scripts jointly with Kenyon, then, based on his date of death of 2 October 1952, the original copyright would have run until 1 January 2003. However, in 1995 the post portem portion of the copyright term for all works then still in copyright was extended by twenty years, meaning that if Mitchell was the author (or joint author with Kenyon) copyright in the scripted elements will last until 31 December of this year, 2023.

For the unscripted works we only need to consider the copyright in the individual frames of the film which are treated as photographs. There were no films with integrated sound tracks at the time the last Mitchel and Kenyon film was made, so we don't need to consider copyright in a sound recording. Copyright in photographs made before 1 August 1989 was a fixed term of 50 years from the date the images (that is, the negatives) were made, so all of the original film stock itself is now out of copyright, meaning that individual frames could be copied, provided they didn't exhibit any elelment of the script, such as a frame containing dialogue.

So that's the situation with the original films or their negatives. You are most unlikely to have access to the nitrate stock which is stored in special conditions, but you are likely to be more interested in the modern copies, either on acetate film or digitally recorded. The acetate film copies are unlikely to have a separate copyright running from the date the copies were made because this would have been an automated chemical process with little or no human intervention. However the digital copies are likely to have bee subject to extensive re-mastering by human editors and restorers and their creative input may be sufficient to qualify the digital masters as new copyright works. If this is so, then this new copyright will last for the lifetime of the editors etc plus 70 years from the end of their year of death. You should check the BFI website to see if any copyyright of this nature is being claimed.

I hope this fully answers your question.

[chronovision]

thank you very much