Night of the Living Copyright Infringement

On Halloween, a few of us watched the original Night of the Living Dead, the zombie classic directed by George E. Romero in 1968. All we did was make fun of it the whole time through, but to be honest, I think it's a pretty cool movie. Much has been made about the film, as both a horror movie and social critique (themes that have been applied to this film include American 1960s society, Cold War politics, and racism; the film has also been trashed by feminists because of the uselessness of the female characters). The film was so influential that The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1999 with other films deemed "historically, culturally or aesthetically important in any way."

One of the reasons it was entered into the Registry is because of the stupidity of its distributor. Night of the Living Dead actually has no copyright status and sits in public domain. In 1968, copyright law required proper notice for it to retain its copyright. The Walter Reade Organization, the original distributor of the film, forgot to include the "Copyright 1968" tagline on the print, and thus it was never legally covered. So that means anyone can distribute and view it for free! So don't feel bad about downloading this sucker off the internet. In fact, you SHOULD download it off the internet! There are at least 23 distributors making money off this film, and George Romero doesn't get a penny! So why should they! And if you want to watch it reenacted by cartoon bunnies, click here.

Also Romero has stated that his decision to cast a black man in the heroic role had nothing to do with his colour: he "simply gave the best audition." If you think about it, that attitude probably does more for civil rights than any engineered social criticism ever could.