While the FBI is busily throwing downloaders in jail, other users are finding lawful ways to exploit BitTorrent technology. While, I have not evaluated the copyright status of each and every movie available at Public Domain Torrents, the gist is that television and film content that has moved into the public domain may be accessed and downloaded by anyone who visits this site.

Anything registered before 1923 is now in the public domain. Additionally, many works published before 1964 have entered the public domain–either because they were not registered or renewed. For works after 1923 that had not lost their copyright protection, the Copyright Term Extension Act (”The Mickey Mouse Act” because of Disney’s heavy lobbying) extends copyright terms an additional 20 years. So, Copyrights registered in 1924 and later will not loose their protection until 2019.

Big score for Disney, less so for you.