Is Jungle Book (1942) public domain?
The copyright record for this film, written out in full so you can check it.
Public domain in the United States
What is usually said
Public domain, never renewed. This is Korda’s 1942 film, not Disney’s.
The finding, and the working behind it
Public domain in the United States: registered LP11215 in 1942 as Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, with no renewal in the 1969, 1970 or 1971 volumes.
To be plain about which film this is: the 1942 Technicolor film produced by Alexander Korda, directed by Zoltan Korda, starring Sabu. It is not the 1967 Disney cartoon or any later Disney version, all of which are in copyright.
The renewal sections for 1969, 1970 and 1971 were searched under both titles, under LP11215 and under the claimant. Nothing was filed.
The register, as it stands
- Original registration
- LP11215, Alexander Korda Films, Inc., 13 April 1942
- Registered as
- Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book
- Renewal fell due
- 1969–1971
- Renewal found
- none
- Searched
- 2026-09-19
The score was searched and nothing was found, which is not the same as proving it free
Miklós Rózsa wrote the music, and he renewed a great deal of his own work: Lydia was renewed as R466754 and a 1942 sonata as R477184 in that same window. No renewal of this film’s score was found in the music volumes that were read.
We are recording that as a search that came back empty rather than as a cleared right. If you plan to use the music separately from the film, check it yourself.
How to check this yourself
Everything above is drawn from public records. None of it requires our word:
- The Catalog of Copyright Entries, the Copyright Office’s printed registration and renewal volumes, scanned and searchable at the Internet Archive and at the Online Books Page. Registration numbers beginning LP or MP are film entries.
- The Copyright Office online records at copyright.gov, which are complete from 1978 and therefore decisive for any renewal that fell due from then on.
- The NFPF Field Guide to Sponsored Films, for the industrial and educational titles, which records copyright status entry by entry.
Where these numbers came from
- Catalog of Copyright Entries, Motion Pictures, for LP11215, with the AFI Catalog on the US company.
- Catalog of Copyright Entries, Motion Pictures and Music renewal sections, 1969 through 1971.
What this does and does not mean
This is a finding about United States copyright, made in good faith from the public record. Copyright terms differ by country, and a film in the public domain here may still be protected elsewhere.
A negative search proves that no record was found, which is not identical to proving that no record exists. The Copyright Office says as much about its own catalogs. Where a search could not be decisive we say so above rather than rounding it up to certainty.
This is a record of research and not legal advice. If you hold a right in this film, or you think we have read the record wrong, write to [email protected] with what we missed and we will correct it here.
Watch it
Jungle Book (1942) is free to watch here, with no account and no advertising.
Why we did this research
Establishing what may be published is the first step before restoring a film and writing an audio description for it. That is what this site is for, and we do the same work on commission — audio description and captioning, with published rates.