Clark Gable’s Movie Debut Just Entered the Public Domain – Here’s Why You’ll Never Watch It, Crypto Coins News

• White Man, the first movie Clark Gable ever appeared in, just entered the public domain.
• Sadly, the silent film is probably lost forever.

Here’s why you’ll never be able to watch it, as well as why so many other important cultural works disappear before their copyrights expire.

Most A-list movie careers have inauspicious beginnings, and long before he was the “King of Hollywood,” Clark Gable made ends meet working as an “extra” in silent movies.

The first of those silent films,White Man, entered the public domain this week. Unfortunately for cinema history buffs, you’ll never be able to watch it.

‘Public Domain Day 2020 ‘Brings Thousands of Works into Public Domain

On New Year’s Day,United States copyrights from the year expired

, bringing thousands of – year-old books, movies, and musical compositions into the public domain.

Nearly a century after their initial release, culturally-significant works likeWhen We Were Very Youngby AA Milne – the first book to feature Winnie the Pooh –can now be shared freely with new generations.

But forWhite Manand thousands of other works like it, this liberation came far too late.

Clark Gable’s First Movie Is Lost Forever

Curious about how Clark Gable performed in his film debut? You’ll probably never get the chance. | Source:Wikimedia Commons**************

Like the majority of early American films,White Manis probably lost forever. According to a Library of Congress study, (*******************************************************************************% of silent films no longer exist, constituting an “alarming and irretrievable loss to our nation’s cultural record.”

Almost no one alive today will ever have the chance to watch Clark Gable’s film debut.That’s partly Hollywood’s fault. A series of 1947 s fires torched thousands of silent film reels, while studios either inexplicably destroyed their archived films on purpose or failed to properly preserve the copies they kept.

But for tens of thousands ofotherworks that entered the public domain long after they’ve vanished forever, there’s another culprit: Congress.

Congress Didn’t DestroyWhite Man– But It’s Robbing Us of Other Culturally-Significant Works

While Congress has a constitutional duty to protect copyright holders,legislators have expanded intellectual property restrictions to unreasonable levels.

Up until (************************************************************, copyrights lasted just 56 years, and holders could renew them once for a maximum copyright term of 76 years. Beginning in (**************************************************************, (conferred copyright holders******************************************************************************** years of protection

. (Imagine: We could be mining‘s cultural treasure-trovetoday rather than bemoaning the loss of silent films from 1930.)

By the government own admission,just 2% of copyrights between 56 and (years old retainanycommercial value. That number is likely lower for works between and 144 years old, yet in (********************************************************, federal legislators expanded the copyrightagain

to the present – year term.

Because so few copyrighted works have any commercial value, many of them fade from existence long before they escape from their – year purgatory. But just because they have no commercial value does not mean they’re culturally vacuous too.

(**********************************************

If current copyright rules had been in force in the s, it’s unlikely any of us would have ever watchedIt’s A Wonderful Life. | Source:Tom Margie via Flickr

It’s A Wonderful Lifewas a (box-office flop in**************************************, but when it entered the public domain in after its initial******************************************************************** – year copyright expired, itquickly became a Christmas season staple on TV networks

– and it remains one to this day.

Would softer copyright protections have afforded us the opportunity to watch Clark Gable grace the silver screen for the first time as “Lady Andrea’s Brother” inWhite Man? Probably not.

But you can betWarner Music’s final royalty check from its infamous “Happy Birthday” copyrightthat this intellectual property regime that favors special interests has done more to rob Americans of underappreciated cultural achievements than it has to protect the artists that created them.

This article was edited bySam Bourgi

Last modified: January 2, (************************************************************************************: (UTC) *********