body: I wanted to ask whether it is legal to screen publicly Chaplin's The Kid (1921). In US according to Wikipedia, all movies made before 1923 are in the public domain. In UK I think the srory is different and the copyright lasts for the author's lifetime + 70 years. Charlie Chaplin was born in London, but spent most of his movie making years in US. Wiki says that The Kid was made by Chaplin (directed and produced) in his studio in US. So which copyright law is in power here, US or UK? 
  
  
  I would think that in this case US law is in power as the movie was made in US under a contract with US distributor, and thus the movie is in the public domain but then there is [this](http://www.charliechaplin.com/en/contacts/articles) company which claims it owns copyright to all movies made by Chaplin after 1918. So who is right and what are the ways to find out. US copyright registry is digitized only for the period after 1978 :( 
  
  
  
title: Who owns copyright of Chaplin's movies (The Kid)