I have just seen the 1936 movie POPPY in nine incrementals at YouTube, and I am concerned because the movie might not be in the public domain. This movie is a version of W. C. Fields's 1923 Broadway success, which he had repeated in a silent film version, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST (the girl was renamed because a movie called POPPY had come out in 1917).
You are correct. I note that, with regularity, copyright-protected material is regularly pulled from YouTube. For better or worse, I think that what happens is that people place this material there, knowing that it will take a little time before it is noticed, reported, and then eliminated.
