TV URBAN LEGEND: Star Trek almost accidentally entered the public domain in the 1970s.
As I have written about a few time in past TV Legends, Star Trek was an unusual series in that while it was successful enough to last for three seasons on network broadcast television (and its viewership totals would look absolutely gaudy nowadays), it was not what you would ever call a "hit" TV series. That is, until it hit syndication. There just seems to be a certain type of show that lends itself to time slots that networks simply don't air major entertainment programing (since TV networks mostly program just for prime time hours) and Star Trek clearly was one of those shows that really connected with younger audiences that weren't watching the show in primetime (where it aired at Friday at 8:30 in Season 1, Thursday at 8:30 in Season 2 and Friday at 10:00, the "death spot" for shows back in those days for Season 3. Its final episode aired at 7:30 on Tuesday. This was a year or so before the Federal Communications Commission officially removed the 7-8:00 hour from network programming and gave it back to individual stations to use it). What we now think of as Star Trek fandom really grew out of the 1970s syndication of the series, not the original airing (the original series obviously had devoted fans, as well, just not as many). The first Star Trek convention, for instance, was not until 1972 and it had small attendance until 1974 when the syndication boom drove a big increase in attendance and Star Trek fandom basically never looked back.
The boom in syndication luckily led to new opportunities for the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, and there was the Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973 and then the film franchise beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. So syndication was obviously a major boon for Star Trek and yet, syndication also almost accidentally set the original series into the public domain!
One of the aspects of the Copyright Act of 1909 was that it specifically required copyrighted works to list the copyright of the work as it aired, complete with the correct date for their copyright. An errant copyright notice, even if it was just a typo, WOULD lead to the work no longer qualifying for copyright protection. The 1976 changes to the Copyright Laws amended that aspect of the law, so that errors would no longer automatically keep you from getting copyright protection. That was only for works copyrighted after 1978, however, which wouldn't be the Star Trek episodes (at least not the ones that aired on syndication before 1978, which were all of them).
And sure enough, throughout the 1970s, the Star Trek episodes routinely ran without copyright notices. Films and television shows accidentally entering the public domain was a common thing during that era, especially when it came to small independent movie companies failing to specifically file for renewal of their copyrighted films. That was how It's a Wonderful Life, for instance, entered the public domain in 1974, as Republic Pictures accidentally forgot to renew the copyright on the film. This was why, during the 1980s, the classic Christmas film began to air constantly during the holiday season, since all people had to do was to pay a small fee for the use of the short story that the film was based on. Eventually, though, the Supreme Court ruled that if the original work was under copyright, then the film BASED on the copyrighted work could be de facto copyright protected, so It's a Wonderful Life is now back under copyright protection (which is why only one network airs the film every year).
Still, that sort of thing was very common in the 1970s and 1980s, especially with the introduction of VCRS and video cassettes. Public domain episodes of popular TV shows and films were regular sellers on VHS in the 1980s and one company, All-Star Video, began selling Star Trek episodes on VHS, as well.
Paramount sued them for copyright infringement and All-Star Video cited the lack of copyright notice. The case went to court in 1981 in Paramount Pictures v. Rubinowitz (E.D.N.Y. 1981) and ultimately, the courts bailed Paramount Pictures out by determining that the notices weren't required in the instance of a syndicated show, because the idea was that the syndication of an episode was a “limited publication" of the episode. The copyright notices were required if you were doing a "general publication" of the show or film, but the court distinguished that with syndication. The court's logic was that the deal was between Paramount and the individual television stations (which were likely less than a hundred total stations at the time) and not with a general audience. Therefore, the notice was considered implied as part of Paramount's deal with the television stations due to the term in the licensing agreements where Paramount noted that it maintained "Paramount's explicit and exhaustive reservation of rights". In other words, nothing that the syndicators could do would remove Paramount's rights. There was an implied belief that a company that was licensing its work out to syndication did not want said work to enter the public domain, and thus the shows were considered protected and a lack of notice in syndication would not be enough for the episodes to enter the public domain.
Now, had the shows been published originally without notice, then that would have been considered a "general publication" of the show without the notice and that would have been enough for the shows to lose copyright (had it occurred before 1978). That didn't happen and as a result, Star Trek is still protected by copyright to this very day (and will remain under copyright for another few decades).
The legend is...
STATUS: Basically False
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