We just released episode 47 where we talked about George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead“. This article is a brief summary of the implications of the copyright mistake that led rise to the Zombie-horde that we see overrunning media and television over the past 49 years.
This story would fit right in with Walter Block’s “Defending the Undefendable” book series.
Due to an error in the updated title screen, no copyright applied based on 1909 version of law. The law was updated in 1976 which would have prevented this type of situation.
But, the basics are: because Romero did not hold the copyright, anyone could use, distribute, remix, sell, make derivatives of, etc…and the concept flourished virtually creating the entire “zombie” genre.
Here is a brief 7-minute video explaining this situation:
Without this mistake: no Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, no “Game of Thrones”, no “Walking Dead”, no “Plants vs. Zombies”, etc…at least the parts of those that have zombies.
It’s the most watched movie on YouTube and made $30 million on a $114k budget. So it was wildly successful financially, despite not having monopoly rent protections from government.
Yes, the Haitian version existed prior, but they were more trance-like than reanimated flesh-eating monsters. In fact, Romero didn’t even use the term “zombie”. He called them “ghouls”.
How the law existed in 1968, because the (c) wasn’t on the title screen…no copyright.
The original title was to be: Night of the Flesh Eaters which had the (c). But a 1964 movie called “Flesh Eaters” had come out a few years prior. And because of copyright, they had to change it right before distribution where the oversight was made.
Here is a link to our episode where we discuss the copyright issue and implications:
Here is some more background detail:
AV Club Article: https://www.avclub.com/why-night-of-the-living-dead-refuses-to-die-1800782109
Documentary on the Making of NOTLD: https://youtu.be/v0atIYZa9-s
For the history you didn’t learn in school, check out Liberty Classroom:
