Overseas status of Star Odyssey/Sette uomini d'oro nello spazio

I really need to know if the movie Star Odyssey is protected works in Italy or in the whole Europe. Allegedlly the film is already Public Domain in America for some reason (it's from 1979), but I really want to know if there is a way to search for copyright in Italy.

Being frank, I plan to make a book revamping the story, and maybe even add some of the characters to the wiki. But I don't know if I can, say put it on Lulu in some kind of way where it's only available in America.

This is one of those questions that stumps me as well. I'm not exactly sure why so many Italian movies are considered PD in the United States....or if it's just a bad assumption. Nobody makes the assumption of French or German or British films, but for some reason, Italian movies seem to have no protection here if they weren't specifically copyrighted here. I don't exactly get that...it seems counter to all that I understand about the laws, but I think it has something to do with the specific history of the films. It could be that the films are just so bad, the director doesn't care about the rights.

As far as publishing works, you need to find out where Lulu actually publishes the books. As long as it's published in the US, it doesn't matter where it is distributed (as I understand it).

I think it might have something to do with Gatt. Fesfilms says...

Quote :

GATT RENEWAL OF FOREIGN FILMS
Over the years many foreign films had been improperly registered or renewed with the Library
of Congress. Effective in 1996 materials which were protected in countries falling under the
Bern convention were permitted to be protected under U.S. Copyright. This GATT treaty
automatically placed all such protected materials under copyright within the limitation of the
U.S. Copyright laws. The rightful owners had two years to register their protection and upon
registration there was a one year grace period for owners of record to exploit their ownership
before ceasing such exploitation. Owners of record as of January 1, 1996 were consideredcompliance owners and were granted a perpetual exclusion for all materials not protected
within the two year registration period. Any film protected under GATT by the foreign owner
of that material or his designated representative on his behalf was granted Copyright status in
the United States.
Films which were re-claimed include most Mexican films, Swedish films of Ingmar Bergman,
Italian films by Fellini and Rossellini, Japanese films by Kurosawa and German films like
METROPOLIS extending back into the 1920s. Library of Congress filings were also made on
most British films of the 1930s and 1940s, even though they were public domain in Britain at the
time, and the validity of these claims has not yet been challenged in court. The British films of
Alfred Hitchcock are still sold as public domain by many vendors.
Some Italian, Spanish and other foreign, westerns and horror films from the 1960s-80s were not
reclaimed under GATT, and presumably can no longer be claimed at this late date.
*****
In summary, all materials which failed to meet registration requirements in any of the various
phases of Copyright protection, through the numerous law changes over the years, would be
usable by the Public today within its rights of Public Domain.

As a mere guess, I'd say the makers of obscure, low budget, unregistered films from Italy often didn't often take the time to properly register their works, and if they didn't during the grace peroid given in the mid 90s, they mostly lapsed. Also, Lulu's Headquarters are in North Carolina.

Hmmm...where did you find this paragraph? I'm wondering if it is up to date with all recent decisions. But it does seem to answer my question. If Star Odyssey is truly PD here, you should be able to print your book on Lulu safely. As long as it's printed here, it goes by US copyright law. That is why League of Extraordinary Gentlemen can include HG Wells characters.

Beside that, if the Italian director is really upset about you publishing a few hundred books at most, based on characters from his "masterpiece," then I'm sure he'll send you a cease and desist, before trying to get his cut of the $200 in profits you might make...

I found it on this site.

http://www.fesfilms.com/Copyright%20Discussion.pdf