Sweet Charity(1969) Copyright Question?

[cinemad]

According to the records of the US Copyright Office Sweet Charity(the Film) was first registered for Copyright on 5 April 1968. The film opened in Los Angeles on 28 March 1969. Principal photography of the film was from about February to August 1968 so how come the Copyright was registered even before principal photography had been completed let alone the Editing and Post-Production?

Would this be legal to register Copyright before a film is in a completed form?
Isn't there(wasn't there) a requirement a copy of the film had to be submitted to the Copyright Office with the Copyright Application?

Regards,
Peter Mason

[g***@hotmail.com]

The U.S. copyright office is a mess. They used to (and probably still do) allow anyone to register or re register a film without checking the owner's right to copyright the film. Why did they also allow films to be copyrighted even though they were already in the public domain? They also allowed hundreds (perhaps thousands)of times anyone to re register another person's film without checking their right to do so. One person even was allowed to copyright the CINERAMA trademark and logo many decades ago without any action taken to stop this practise. Let's face it -the CINERAMA trademark was used and abused hundreds of times over the years (and still is ) without any action being taken to alleviate such illegal practices. For all purposes,the Cinerama name/trademark could be deemed to be in the public domain as the name was virtually abandoned for decades and never used until recently. This of course would have to be determined by a court but it would be very likely to succeed.It is also not always necessary,in some countries, to have to register something that is to be copyrighted as it is automatic if you are the owner.