The Story of Godzilla vs Megalon's Copyright Mishap in America 

One minor misconception to clear up - very few of the films MST3K showed were public domain. Most of them were/are licensed out from (usually) smaller film archives that hold rights. Even their versions of the Godzilla movies came to them in a package of films they licensed from Film Ventures (it also included Pod People, Cave Dwellers and a few others). Film Ventures was one of those '80s companies that ran wild with questionably-owned VHS releases and often edited new opening/closing credits to a film to claim their own copyright on their version. MST3K thought they were going through proper channels with it, just turned out the "owners" they paid didn't actually own it.

The reason Godzilla Vs Megalon got such a push for its theatrical release in the US was it came out when folks were being bombarded with hype for the Dino DeLaurentis King Kong remake. The film company figured another big monster could cash in on the publicity. That's why both monsters are posed atop the WTC on the poster, even though they never go near New York in the film.

Fun fact: there Is a company called “just for kids” and they used the Showa gamera films on the public domain back in the 1980s.

One important piece of information you forgot to mention is that the copyright notice and registration are no longer required to own the copyright to something (I think it's part of the 1976 Copyright Act). Today, you only need to publish something to own the copyright to something, with copyright registration just something that helps with taking legal action against infringement.

I watched Godzilla vs. Megalon , when it premiered on NBC and edited to fit a one hour time slot. John Belushi was in a Godzilla suit and acting the fool as the lead-in to commercials. 🦖

Another great video from you! Looking forward to the next one! I would also add that causal racism and related ignorance against Japanese monster movies, especially in the 1980s, may have been a contributing factor on why distributors would just release these willy-nelly: how many horror stories there've been where an American company, small and big alike, assumed Godzilla has no copyright holders, were told Godzilla was copyrighted, went ahead against the warnings of better minds, and then Toho comes calling about Godzilla's copyright (i.e. It Ate Cleveland).

I have one of the recalled Megalon DVDs and the commentary is highly informative. If you happen to find one definitely snag it.

On derivative works: Possibly the most famous example of a movie only partially going into the public domain is It’s a Wonderful Life. Due to a clerical error the copyright lapsed and it entered the public domain in 1974, but because it was loosely adapted from Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story “The Greatest Gift” about 30 minutes of it (basically the whole sequence where George sees what life would be like if he didn’t exist) is still under copyright as a derivative work. Between that and the movie having fallen into obscurity it became dirt cheap to license for TV, and within a few years became the iconic holiday classic it still is today.

The US release of Gamera being public domain is actually simple. The Copyright act of 1976 states that the rights holders of any work prior to a certain point would have to registered their copyright and trademark by a set cut off date at which point they would NEVER have to do it again until the directors lifespan plus 70 years. (Now 90 years.) The problem is that the US rights holders to many Kaiju movies (and sci-fi films in general) no longer existed. Some were lucky enough to be bought out by other companies... who may or may not have been aware of what they had. But since they didn't register, it would be treated as if the trademark was abandoned. This failure to reregister is why Manos The Hands of Fate is public domain. And looping this back to MST3K, the result of Hal Warren's lawsuit against Universal Pictures Distribution, Best Brains Productions, and just about everyone who has done Manos fanworks since MST3K's take on that film recently reaffirmed the idea that once something is public domain, it can not be reclaimed. (It isn't stopping Comcast/Universal from trying with It's a Wonderful Life.)

In regards to Gamera's illegitimate public domain releases, I THINK (pure speculation) it may have something to do with American International Pictures, the distributor for five of the films on American television, going defunct in the late 70's. After that, opportunistic distributors showed up and assumed the Gamera films they released were free game.

Interesting little topic here and raises a lot of questions about the Internet Archive as well given how many kaiju and tokusatsu films are on there.

Great video and research. No wonder why Toho kept blocking my super old Godzilla music video I made back in like 2003 which had clips of the GvM mst3000 ep lol. It wasn't until I put "blocked by Toho" text over the footage that they finally stopped blocking it hahaha

I got the MST3k set with the Megalon episode for Christmas the year it came out, and as a result of this copyright mess, it might be the most valuable thing I own.

Very informative. I really enjoy these kinds of vids.

Something similar happened to the original Rudolph movie. Rankin-Bass decided to display the copyright date in Roman Numerals. They wrote the year wrong, though, which meant it didn't have a valid copyright notice and was free game.

Yeah that first Gamera movie the black and white one. When he's definitely a bad guy and is only the friend to one 10-year-old boy is in the public domain.

Oh also that episode of MST3000 was one of my favorites. Godzilla and Jet Jaguar surrounded by fire: Game over man! Game over!

Great vid! I always wondered what the deal was with this movie and the MST3K episode. It's really hard to find the ep outside of low quality versions on random websites.

Toho's lawyers are about as stupid as Nintendo's.

Regardless of the copyright claims, Godzilla vs. Megalon still means a lot to me as it was the first Godzilla movie I ever saw.

I'm sure that's what people did after spending more than 30 dollars for that set of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I think everyone kept ahold of that disc cause it would ne a collector's item now.

Great work Ol’ Bud! Thanks for clearing up “public domain” definition!!

Would the English dub of "Megalon" constitute a "change"? I ask this because Cinema Shares didn't change that. That is, they didn't dub the movie into English. They used Toho's international dub, commissioned by Toho in Hong Kong. Toho owns the dub. Toho gave them their international version of the movie (which does feature a copyright notice at the end) and that's what Cinema Shares released, minus the opening titles and the "The End/copyright notice" card at the end.

Godzilla VS. Megalon was the first Godzilla movie my dad ever saw, and even got me a copy of it on VHS. I myself own a DVD copy of the film with (and without) the bonus Features. Also, had Mystery Science Theater 3000 not accidentally released the Godzilla VS. Megalon episode on DVD, I may not have been the mistie fan I am now. I found the volume 10 DVD at a goodwill, and at the time, I was in my very early teens, (maybe 11 or 12 ) and at the time, being a huge Godzilla fan my entire life, we were not wealthy enough to buy any Godzilla DVDs in good shape on ebay. So when I saw the DVD set at goodwill, I figured it was one of those public domain sci-fi DVD compilation collections that also included a Godzilla movie. So I got it and I figured I could make my own homemade DVD, but once I watched it I realized it was just a bunch of guys talking over it, and I was very angry and upset. So, I left it lying around somewhere for about a month maybe, then I decided to watch the entire Mystery Science Theater episode, and I instantly fell in love with it with laughter! Volume 10 was the very first DVD of MST3K I ever got, and still to this day, I'm a huge fan and as of now, I'm (VERY) close to complete my DVD collection of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Again, had I not accidentally gotten and discovered the DVD, I may never have been an MST3K fan. (But I may have still discovered them at some point, but I say it was probably better on how I stumbled upon it sooner than later). 😁

No one fucks over Toho like Toho themselves.

It’s definitely upsetting that this movie(Godzilla vs megalon) got used by many companies to realise them towards the public domain and cause that mystery science theater to mock it but thank god that toho intervined to stop the copyright. (Well I do now think that the copyright shenanigans caused by toho is kinda annoying for me now and well out guys are right on the whole mystery science theater 3000 because it did introduce some new fans to it so there you have it)

I was the one who commented on your last video that you should cover this topic! Thank you and great work! One thing I don't understand is why did the Godzilla movies prior to "Godzilla vs. Megalon" not have any copyright issues despite not having any copyright notices on them either?

I think part of the reason why so many Kaiju flicks from foreign nations have a public domain problem is because most people back then never considered that a copyright system would exist over there nor that they did they wouldn't even be able to stop them because the gap between countries A possible case of ignorance to how a different country operates

And TV's Frank had the perfect replacement for ... this film: "It's called Star Wars!!" 🤣🤣 I love MST3K!!!

The movie predates that law.

FOOTNOTE : there was a bit of a dust up regarding the title GODZILLA VS MEGALON , was first going to or was ( for a while ) was released under the name GODZILLA VS THE BIONIC MONSTER . the makers of the tv series THE 6 MILLON DOLLAR MAN had a thing or two to say about that , for obvious reasons. Then another title was given GODZILLA VS THE COSMIC MONSTER , but another objection was raised from somewhere ( anybody know who ? ) Who knew that one flick could be so much trouble !!!

Sadly, almost all the Millennium and the rest of Heisei films are going to lose the license this year so pretty much the Heisei and Millennium era films are gonna be out of print now till Criterion releases them years from now compressed into a few discs with worse quality and film reels intact to give you epilepsy like their Showa collection. Lets be honest, we live in best and worst times right now.

I saw "Godzilla Vs. Megalon" when it first came out in the US. It was advertised very heavily, how well I remember that poster art with the two monsters atop the World Trade Center, capitalizing on the popularity of Dino De Laurentis' "Kong." A year later, I went to see "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla," which I found a vast improvement, but still short of what i had hoped for. Only in 2022 did I finally see "Terror of MechaGodzilla," which was exactly what I had been looking for back in the '70s! Amazing American distributors didn't grab THAT one and give it the big release. I would have LOVED it!

Hope that one day we’ll get the MST3000 Godzilla vs Megalon again

I have that recalled version on Blu-Ray, got it for like $5 sealed from an FYE going out of business!

Great video . (I have not yet watched the video!)

Uh-huh vs Whu-huh, my favourite Godzilla movie.

Keep up the Great Work 👍

Will we see a follow up video about kaiju that ARE in the public domain?

I have those copies of Destroy All Monsters and Megalon, at least the packaging. I'll have to check for the special features when I get home.

My favorite Godzilla movie and I’ll fight anyone about it.

Can You Review Gorgo?

Está información vale millones

I lucked out when I bought Godzilla vs. Megalon. I did get the DVD with the bonuses. Worth few bucks?, not really as it is considered opened/unsealed. And with copying, bootleg copies are available.

IIRC there _IS_ a way to tell from the disc artwork, the DVD production code from the recalled version is different from the replacement version, but the difference is _only_ on the disc itself, not the cover art. Again, i’m thinking back 10+ years, so do your own research to confirm 🙂

It’s sad what can happen when something ends up in the public domain. It happened the the original Winnie the Pooh book and now we’re getting a horror movie. 😢

You forgot to mention that Tokyo Shock was also supposed to release the soundtrack to Godzilla vs. Megalon in the U.S., but never did - and I still don't know why. Can anyone here tell me why this wasn't done?

Actually the disc art on the recalled and bare bones versions of Godzilla vs Megalon from Tokyo Shock are slightly different so you can use that to tell them apart

How are the MST3K versions of Goji vs Megalon and Ebirah not derivative works, and, thus, free from copyright claims by Toho?

Speaking of copyright, SFDebris recently uploaded some videos discussing the background of Godzilla VS Mothra, plus commentary on the movie itself. Problem is, Toho struck most of it down. It looks like you are avoiding the wrath of that terrible instrument, Content ID, by using a moving frame, stretching video, and so on? Below is a link to the background video, which I think you will find interesting. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1QLg813oC3E.html

Fun Fact: Japan Was Founded on February 11th 660

But this video did not explain why Night of the Living Dead did not receive copyright protection due to it's home country's copyright laws????

....does this also include certain music,say, from the 1960/70s (ex: rock,pop,soul,etc.)?!?

so good

Bad mistake on their end

Would Pulgasari be similar? Like, would the People's Republic of North Korea sue MST3K for featuring it?

Ayyy

I was around

Thank You for explaining this,

Growing up I had a few of the unauthorized gamera dvds. War of the monsters was probably the only one I saw multiple times