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Poster:	larus	Date:	October 14, 2012 10:17:34am
Forum:	moviesandfilms	Subject:	Re: Mambo (1954) copyright status

Thanks for the additional information, especially the Dolce Vita case I hadn't heard about.

I also originally missed the fact that the film was an Italian-American production. Going by the fact that IMDB listed Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis, two Italian citizens, as the producers and Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica as the production company, I had thought it was a pure Italian production. However, the American Film Institute entry does call the film an "American-Italian co-production" and list Paramount Pictures as a production company, along with the Ponti-De Laurentiis vehicle.
I don't have the feeling that Paramount's contribution was a major one because the original copyright registration doesn't emphasize it and only lists the Ponti-De Laurentiis vehicle as a production company:
MAMBO.
Produzione Ponti De Laurentiis. Rome.
Released in the U. S. by Paramount Pictures Corp.
94 min., sd., b&w, 35mm.
© Paramount Pictures Corp.; 13Nov54; LP4586.

When you called the film "an American production", I don't know if you meant a pure American production or whether a partial or even minor American contribution was sufficient to earn this label in your eyes.
Still, I don't know how much impact that partial American involvement has on the eligibility of the film for copyright restoration under URAA/GATT and haven't seen any resource dealing with such cases.

In this light, I withdraw my original statement stating the film "is definitely under copyright".
I still think there's a good chance it is under copyright, and consider the fact that it is not carried by public domain distributors Alpha Video and Mill Creek Entertainment as a red flag. But it's hard to know for sure until a similar case goes to court.

From now on, I'll steal a page from IP lawyers' books and use qualifiers such as points to, suggests that and so on.

Cheers!

This post was modified by larus on 2012-10-14 17:17:34

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Poster:	HektorT	Date:	October 14, 2012 10:31:45am
Forum:	moviesandfilms	Subject:	Re: Mambo (1954) copyright status

Yeah, some cases are really difficult to decipher. I agree with you on the red flag, but if Paramount owns the copyright, I wonder how much weight that would carry.

This post was modified by HektorT on 2012-10-14 17:31:45