I've had some success up-scaling old VHS porn, and got to thinking there might be a market for it-- in the same vein as re-mastered music recordings. 80's era stuff was produced by companies (like "VCX" and "Caballero Control") that are long gone. Sure, the material was copyrighted when produced, and these companies might have merged into other companies, but copyrights expire if not renewed. For example, "Debbie Does Dallas" is in the public domain in the United States. This is due to a 1987 US court ruling that declared its copyright was lost because it was initially exhibited without a proper copyright notice. I'm guessing that much of this stuff is also now Public Domain. Since many industry insiders follow this forum, I was wondering if anybody had any insight into this, or how one would go about tracing the ownership (if any) of a vintage XXX work. Thanks in advance!
VCX isn't long gone, it is still operating. Chances are, they are under copyright. Debbie Does Dallas may be under copyright, it wasn't decided in a court case about a decade ago.
according to wikipedia which cites a hollywood reporter article from 2011 which cites the court ruling op is talking about debbie does dallas is irretrievably in the united states public domain. so from that it sounds like it was indeed decided. also, the dallas cowboys successfully sued the producers\company decades ago over copyright infringement. that may be another reason besides the incorrect initial filing for copyright that the film is public domain. i dont know for sure but if you produce something that violates another parties existing copyright i am not sure if you will ever be granted a copyright
interestingly if you go to the table of films and click on the year column from newest to oldest you will see Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain for the exact same reason. a very famous mainstream film that is not a hunder years old lol.
ah i see. is that the same Arrow that distributes old mainstream films? i just ordered a blu ray of the theatrical cut of "the warriors" last night and i believe the imprint was Arrow. also, do the dallas cowboys own some sort of stake in debbie does dallas because of the copyright infringement? on that list of public domain films there is a side not saying the dallas cowboys own veto power on commercial publication because their trademark was violated. the reference is from a 2002 article which is quite a while ago. this seems very interesting but nuanced and confusing.
It is a different Arrow. You are thinking of Arrow Video, this is Arrow Film & Video (I know very similar). Arrow was a mob owned company that was "sold" (various accounts exist for that) to Ray Pistol.
I can't speak to the public domain issue, but the idea of a market for remastered old scenes (and movies) is interesting. It's come up here before, as in this thread about scenes that are still online but in the same 360p since the early 00s:
Movies from the VHS era could be remastered/upscaled, creating a new market. Some of this is already happening (Vinegar Syndrome). Still more interesting would be if, freed from the time constraints of VHS, older movies could have a second life as "director's cut" versions.
there is an interesting mini documentary included in some of the james bond blu rays ( i bought the box set not sure if it is exclusively for that or is on the individual releases also) anyhow showing and explaining the restoration process of the films etc. they mention that all of the older classic bond films were shot on film and how film is actually much more easy to restore and clean up than old digital stuff from the 90's and early 00's. i also saw something very similar explained once on a mainstream film blu ray message board. this could explain why no such market exists for what you are describing its simply too difficult and cost and time consuming to clean up old vhs era stuff because of the the technology it was shot with. it seems vinegar syndrome and the likes mainly restore really early stuff like deepthroat which was shot on film and backs up what i was saying.
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Posted - Jul 13 2025 : 4:30PM