Today and the Future

We extend to you a very warm welcome to pdcomedy.com, a collection of what we consider to be the finest public domain comedy content we can find, anywhere.

We aim to continually update this site over time with only the best clips from public domain feature length movies, movie shorts and television programs.

All of the content on this site is believed to be in the public domain, which means that either copyright never existed (such as for USA movies made before 1923), or copyright was not renewed correctly in the USA (such as in the cases of 'Royal Wedding', 'Till The Clouds Roll By') or copyright has simply expired in the work. It is a complicated area, each title may have a different reason for falling into the public domain, and in probably all cases there is no legal document that says something is actually 'public domain', there is just either no valid document claiming copyright, or the copyright holder does not pursue their copyright claim for whatever reason.

We believe that you are free to copy and watch the video content on this site, but you should always consult with legal counsel to confirm you are using the clips legally. An example:

There was a legal case we read about once, which involved Fred Astaire's dance with a broomstick in the movie 'Royal Wedding'. An advertising company apparently digitally reworked the sequence and replaced the broom with a vacuum cleaner. The Fred Astaire estate, we understand, challenged its legality and it was judged that the change was not legal. Royal Wedding is generally regarded as a public domain movie, you can copy the movie, make clips out of it like we have, for free, but there are limits with what you can do with it.

This is why when anyone emails us asking for permission to use our clips we tell them to take advice from a copyright lawyer.

pdcomedy.com or theVoiceofReason.com offers no warranty or implied or actual guarantee, that these clips can be used for purposes outside our websites, and we reserve the right to withdraw any or all of the clips at any time in the future. The law may change in the future, and it may vary in different locations around the world, so you must always check that local laws allow you to use the content on our site.

Your comments on how we can improve are always appreciated, including suggestions for movies that are in the public domain that you think would be suitable for inclusion. editor@pdcomedy.com. We read and answer all of our emails.

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