Since there wouldn’t be any cost associated with getting rights for streaming, why can’t I boot up Nosferatu on whatever platform I happen to be on? To me it seems like the cheapest, easiest thing to do to upload a collection of the most famous public domain movies as a matter of course when setting up a streamer. Is there a specific reason why it mostly isn’t done?
In: Economics
>famous public domain movies
There really aren’t any. At least not any good ones.
Anything decent that’s been made after the 1920s is not going to be in public domain. That’s because for films the copyright lasts either 95 years life or the author plus 70 years (the way films work it’s usually the 95 years thing).
And there simply aren’t very many movies from that long ago first place, let alone ones people today want to watch. For reference the first sound film was in 1927.
Some newer films are in the public domain, but that’s usually because the movie is terrible and the company/person that would otherwise hold the copyright knows its garbage and they don’t care
That said, some famous movies that are in the public domain, even newer ones. And those typically ARE on most streaming services. One example I’m aware of is *Night of the Living Dead* which is on most everything.
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