consumerx said:

drngr said:

Asaki said:

But then again, when they did Night of the Living Dead for Rifftrax Live, it looked an awful lot like the BluRay and not a public domain print...

What do you mean? It being public domain means it is legal to redistribute a Blu-ray so long as you don't break the decryption in doing so.

Not necessarily. A bluray release of a public domain product can be protected if the distributor did something original to it. For example, if the retail release had added scenes, a commentary track, new credits or title cards, and menu, all those new elements can be protected under U.S. law. A film colour-correction and cleanup may also be protected, if shown to be unique to the release.

With regards to Rifftrax, I think they are just taking a gamble that they will not get noticed by any power players.

Correct. Only the original incarnation can be public domain.

Sherlock Holmes is public domain. Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. is copyright.