Godzilla/Kaiju General Releases Thread (Ask questions here!)

[MikeSTZillak]

Just curious, when will Half Human be public domain is the U.S.?

[UltramanGoji]

Just curious, when will Half Human be public domain is the U.S.?

The general rules is death of the author plus seventy years. I don't know how films work but I'm assuming the director is the one they choose as "author", so it would be 1993 + 70 years, so 2063.

But again, I don't know if it's different from film or if Toho can just renew the copyright to keep it from entering PD. And even if it does, it just means the work is PD, not that Toho is forced to release it. The only available copies would be the leaked Toho Video VHS copy and the Americanization. Someone with more knowledge than me can add onto this/change some stuff around that I got wrong.

[Terasawa]

Film copyright laws in the U.S. are different: film enters public domain 95 years after its registration or release. It’s also more complicated than that because it involves copyright renewal and proper registration in the first place.

So assuming all those conditions were met with Half Human:

Its initial U.S. release was 1957 so it should enter public domain in 2052 (I don’t know if the copyright was registered by DCA or Toho prior to that), however, I think it gets complicated when international copyright comes into play. There’s also the matter of the Uruguay Round, involving reestablishment of copyright on foreign works that have fallen into public domain. According to Wikipedia, those specific talks ended in disagreement and the matter is still unresolved.

[omgitsgodzilla]

I would assume the rights would return to Toho, if their copyright is still in effect. Of course, that's if the US version isn't considered a totally distinct work.

[Great Hierophant]

Film copyright laws in the U.S. are different: film enters public domain 95 years after its registration or release. It’s also more complicated than that because it involves copyright renewal and proper registration in the first place.

So assuming all those conditions were met with Half Human:

Its initial U.S. release was 1957 so it should enter public domain in 2052 (I don’t know if the copyright was registered by DCA or Toho prior to that), however, I think it gets complicated when international copyright comes into play. There’s also the matter of the Uruguay Round, involving reestablishment of copyright on foreign works that have fallen into public domain. According to Wikipedia, those specific talks ended in disagreement and the matter is still unresolved.

It isn't as complicated as you think. RE0000254922 is the renewal registration for Half Human by DCA/Wade Williams in 1985. The US Version of Half-Human is protected until 2052. Japanese copyright law gives 38 years of protection after the directors death for works created before 1971, so that film would not enter the public domain there until 2031. Regarding the Uruguay Round, that restores Toho's rights in any film whose copyright has not lapsed into the public domain in its country of origin and allows them to be enforced with a restoration filing.

My article here discusses more popular film copyrights in more detail than you ever wanted to know :

https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/20 ... -will.html

[Terasawa]

^Thank you, I couldn’t check the copyright record when I posted that the other day (site maintence or high user load or something) and thanks too for the clarification on the Uruguay Round. The Williams claim is a bit interesting... he has the rights to a lot of ‘50s monster movies and there’s been some criticism that his claim to ownership on at least some of them may not be 100% legitimate.

[omgitsgodzilla]

One thing to consider though: In modern film credits, you usually see a notice along the lines of "[Studio] is the author of this motion picture for the purposes of copyright law." I assume this means that the studio is defined as the author after whose death a film eventually lapses into the public domain, as opposed to any one filmmaker who worked on it. I don't know how long this has been common practice, or whether it's typical elsewhere in the world, but I am curious whether anything like that might apply here.

[Terasawa]

Well, along those lines, Williams has had most of his films issued on DVD (by Image Entertainment and others) but as we all know Half Human is not among them. It was released on VHS twice and at least the later release (Englewood Entertainment) fully credits him as the copyright owner. I've wondered if the reason we never saw a DVD version might have been his concern that Toho might dispute his claim.

[Great Hierophant]

The URAA didn't come into force until 1996, it authorized a grace period for persons who relied on a copyright work having been in the public domain, a copyright holder had to file a notice of intent to enforce copyright in a work which had previously lapsed into the public domain, the infringer had to publish the work and the copyright holder had to find out about it. Only then could a copyright holder suppress the infringing work. By that time the VHS days would likely be over.

Williams would be right to worry about Toho pursuing a claim. Toho took advantage of the URAA restoration process and registered "Jujin yukiotoko" and a few other titles on December 17, 1997 as PA0000884555 .

[_JNavs_]

So with the newly announced Blu Ray rereleases of Kong/G14/PacRim/Rampage. I've decided eventually I would pick these films up, however the original Blu Ray releases are only about $6, so is there any new content attached to the rereleases that justifies paying more, or is it just the new covers? If there's nothing different about them I'd rather just get the unique designs of the OG releases.

[goji1986]

So with the newly announced Blu Ray rereleases of Kong/G14/PacRim/Rampage. I've decided eventually I would pick these films up, however the original Blu Ray releases are only about $6, so is there any new content attached to the rereleases that justifies paying more, or is it just the new covers? If there's nothing different about them I'd rather just get the unique designs of the OG releases.

They are repackaged discs to cash in on KOTM hype.

[_JNavs_]

So with the newly announced Blu Ray rereleases of Kong/G14/PacRim/Rampage. I've decided eventually I would pick these films up, however the original Blu Ray releases are only about $6, so is there any new content attached to the rereleases that justifies paying more, or is it just the new covers? If there's nothing different about them I'd rather just get the unique designs of the OG releases.

They are repackaged discs to cash in on KOTM hype.

Any differences in price? Like, the original blu rays are cheap on Amazon, but these rereleases will be sold in Walmarts, so will they be like $25-$30?

I haven't picked up a Blu Ray movie in forever, I think the last one I bought was Gamera 2 and that was at least 8 years ago

[UltramanGoji]

So with the newly announced Blu Ray rereleases of Kong/G14/PacRim/Rampage. I've decided eventually I would pick these films up, however the original Blu Ray releases are only about $6, so is there any new content attached to the rereleases that justifies paying more, or is it just the new covers? If there's nothing different about them I'd rather just get the unique designs of the OG releases.

They are repackaged discs to cash in on KOTM hype.

Any differences in price? Like, the original blu rays are cheap on Amazon, but these rereleases will be sold in Walmarts, so will they be like $25-$30?

I haven't picked up a Blu Ray movie in forever, I think the last one I bought was Gamera 2 and that was at least 8 years ago

They will not be that high. At most, $15 each.

[Mr. Yellow]

Mothra on Blu-ray!

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2019 ... k-blu-ray/

[Maritonic]

Mothra on Blu-ray!

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2019 ... k-blu-ray/

Instant buy. Excellent news.

[UltramanGoji]

I'm waiting for reviews. I don't want another dubtitled release.

[Terasawa]

I'm waiting for reviews. I don't want another dubtitled release.

Fair enough, although I imagine they'll port the subtitles from the 2009 Sony DVD. Those are not dubtitles. (The dubbed version is ten+ minutes shorter, anyway.)

[UltramanGoji]

I'm waiting for reviews. I don't want another dubtitled release.

Fair enough, although I imagine they'll port the subtitles from the 2009 Sony DVD. Those are not dubtitles. (The dubbed version is ten+ minutes shorter, anyway.)

Oh, they aren't? I was under the assumption they were.

In that case, that's a 180 for me. I'll definitely grab it.

[MikeSTZillak]

Mothra on Blu-ray!

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2019 ... k-blu-ray/

Sweet.

[G-Matt]

I honestly never thought this would happen.

ShinGoji will be released on Blu-ray over here in Finland! This means it'll be the first Japanese Godzilla movie in YEARS to get a release of any kind in my home country. I am beyond excited!

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Shin-God ... ay/240496/