Evidence of Public Domain Status:
At the bottom there is a text that reads "Litho in U.S.A. 26544. This poster is the property of the Fox Film Corp. It Is Leased - Not Sold Copyright by Fox Film Corp. MCMXXXV Tooker-Moore Lithograph Co. Inc., N.Y."
Under the terms of the U.S. 1909 Copyright Act the artwork (poster) would have had to be renewed 28 years after publication. A work from 1935 would have to have been renewed in 1963. There are no relevant hits in the Artwork volumes (which include works of art; reproductions of works of art; scientific and technical drawings; photographic aorks; prints and pictorial illustrations) for "The 39 Steps". There's no evidence Fox Film Corp. renewed their 1935 copyright for this material.
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.
Captions
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