English: Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image and retouched to fix damage (a tear by the "N" in "Rockne") and improve color; see unretouched original in upload history below.
English: The poster included a defective copyright notice, seen at bottom left: "Copyright Vitagraph Inc. All Rights Reserved". The notice omits the year of publication, 1940 (the film's theatrical release came in October 1940, so it is unlikely that the poster was published the previous year).
Even if the notice is deemed sufficient, the copyright for the artwork was not renewed, as was required by American copyright law to extend/maintain protection for works published 1963 or earlier. In order to maintain copyright protection, the poster would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication, in either 1967 or 1968 (see the sections for "Artwork: Original registrations and renewals" and refer to the links to search the copyright catalogs for those years). Because it was not renewed, copyright lapsed at that time. Note that the poster art is a distinct work from the film it represents and had to be renewed separately.)
This is a retouched picture, which means that it has been digitally altered from its original version. Modifications made by Blz 2049.
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive, with a defective copyright notice (copyright notice information) containing at least one of the following defects:
Notice is dated more than one year later than the actual date of first publication;
Notice does not include a named claimant or does not name the actual copyright holder;
Notice is illegible or concealed from view;
It is a printed literary, musical, or dramatic work that does not include the year.
A defective notice does not invalidate copyright in cases where the error is immaterial and would not mislead an infringer, such as an abbreviated name. Additionally, foreign works created outside the US are subject to copyright restoration even with a defective notice. It is not in the public domain in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and other countries with individual treaties.
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description={{en|1=Poster for the theatrical run of the 1940 American film ''The Maltese Falcon''.}} |Source={{en|1=Scan via [https://movieposters.ha.com/itm/sports/knute-rockne-all-american-warner-brothers-1940-one-sheet-27-x-41-/a/7055-83485.s Heritage Auctions]. Cropped from the original image and retouched to fix damage (a tear by the "N" in "Rockne") and improve color; see unretouched original in upload history be...