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I don't believe he has no way to verify the public domain designation.
I would check it out before buying.
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He's dead wrong. Nothing newer than 1923 can be ASSUMED to be in the public domain. Some works newer than that MIGHT now be in the public domain, but rest assured that 1970s television shows owned by Paramount Pictures and still in syndication are not among them.
Here's a helpful chart about copyright expiration:
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
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Copyrights are renewable. There are some television episodes that are in the public domain but that's because the copyright was not renewed for some reason.
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Guys, yes, that's what I would have assumed too (about it NOT being in the public domain) -- I just wondered if there might be some exception in this case, for him to be fairly brazenly advertising it for sale in this manner...
If it finished in 1975, then we are at 30 years this past year-- maybe it's the 28 year limit?
Edit: Gutie, yes, that's what I was wondering about.
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If you google "public domain tv" you will find lists of television episodes that are in the public domain.
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Hmmm...
After Googling a bit (thanks Gutie), I come to a few conclusions:
1) It's probably not in the public domain;
2) Some places are selling it, claiming they can do so under a provision of "The Berne Act"-- which would seemingly let them get around the copyright issue, by taking advantage of inapplicability of US copyright elsewhere in the world...
Unfortunately, the US Copyright Office search engine apparently isn't working at the moment...
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Yes, it's possible that the show is in the public domain in other countries.
No, it's not in the pubic domain here.
The 1976 Act eliminated formalities such as registration. It extended protection to the show before the initial term had ended and registration would otherwise have been required.
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended the copyrights to life of the author + 70 years (or 95 years for corporate works) in the U.S.
The copyrights in the Odd Couple potentially extend not merely to the production as a whole, but also to the soundtrack, teleplay and other components (I say "potentially" because when it was created there were formalities that might have prevented some elements from attaining a copyright). Until all of those parts enter the public domain, commercial copying is going to be an infringing use.
