Afraid not, James. As I said, it's exactly the same situation as for Hitchcock's British films. This is really straightforward, so all I can do
is repeat:
- In the US only, the film was temporarily public domain from 1953, but copyright was restored on the 1st January 1996.
- Any US copies made between 1953-1995 are fine: basically, that means early VHS tapes and the odd LaserDisc.
- The DVD format didn't appear in the west until 1997-1998 and the earliest unofficial Metropolis DVD I know of is from 1999. All unofficial DVDs are bootlegs.
To re-reiterate:
Metropolis and many other films were
never PD anywhere else, so
every unofficial release produced outside of the US
before or since 1996 is a bootleg.
If you still need convincing, there's another important point to bear in mind. From my
article on US copyright law:
"Those who had previously been commercially exploiting such works were defined as “reliance parties,” and were given a limited window in which they could clear existing stock once the foreign rights holder had filed a “Notice of Intent to Enforce” the restored US copyright of a particular work."
In other words, from 1996 all the companies then issuing the films on VHS (and the odd LD) were given at least a years' grace to stop making copies and sell off existing stock. Instead, they not only knowingly continued but later went into production on a new format (DVD). These DVDs were always bootlegs, deliberately produced as bootlegs. It can't be any more black and white.
Everything above applies to many films in this database. What I love most about this site and its contributors is how much they strive for accuracy; I'm also happy to have been corrected on several occasions! I like to think this is a place where we don't blithely repeat the misinformation found all over the rest of the internet.
I've said before - and in at least this case you agree - these boots aren't worth anyone's time or money. If you'd rather not remove them, may I suggest moving them to their own "Bootlegs" section at the foot of the page, with a disclaimer that they're not recommended but being listed for reference purposes only?