File:Singin' in the Rain (1952 poster).jpg

English: Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image.

English: "Copyright 1952 Loew's Incorporated"

English: The poster included a valid copyright notice, seen at bottom left. However, 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. See the Copyright Catalog (1978 to present). In order to maintain copyright protection, the poster would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication. 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. (N.B.: There is a registration (Reg. No. VA0001309427, 2002-12-02) for "Singin in the rain collection", a work published 1998-05-10, with "Preexisting material: movie posters" and "New Matter: changes & additional artwork." This registration appears to have been made for some modified versions of Singin' in the Rain promotional artwork, likely including this poster, probably to coincide with a home-video release, a book, or some other new republication of the material. It is not to be confused with a renewal of the original poster art, and in any event it would have come too late: the 1952 poster had to be renewed in 1979 or 1980, expiring thereafter, while this registration came in 2002 for a 1998 publication. These later, modified versions of the poster artwork may be protected by copyright, but even so these works would be distinct from the original unmodified poster as presented here.)