Q: What are public domain movies?
A: All films that were released before 1925, and many earlier films that lost copyright protection in certain ways (including but not limited to: being lack of renewal, missing or flawed copyright notice, being work of the United States government) are now in public domain status in the United States. Meaning everyone in the public ‘owns’ them.
Q: Is it legal to watch public domain movies?
Is it legal to download public domain movies?
Is it legal to use public domain movies for commercial purposes?
A: You can do anything you want with public domain movies, its utterly legal, but there’s one exception. Many movies are based on plays, novels, magazine stories or a combination of those sources, a film’s copyright has lapsed doesn’t mean its underlying material does as well, so using that kind of a film may infringe copyright.