[bawolff]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel... is what i'm "on about".

While all those decisions may feel creative to you, its highly questionable whether they are "creative" according to the law (in usa anyways)

[rapidaneurism]

Can't he just add an introduction where he speaks about it, this making the whole work copyrighted? Seems to work for people printing ancient texts.

[philistine]

The case of It's a Wonderful Life has shown that specific parts of a movie can be in the public domain while other parts aren't, even down to the music within a public domain scene.

For the dreaded special editions of Star Wars, only Jabba's stupid face or the specific shot of the Death Star exploding with that ugly-looking ring would have a copyright of 1997. The original scenes cleaned and restored would still have a copyright of 1977.