About the archive

Last updated 2 September 2026

StreamVault is a small, slow-growing archive of films whose copyright term has expired. Early cinema, silent serials, documentary. Nothing here is licensed from anyone, because nothing here needs to be.

The catalogue is deliberately narrow. We would rather host thirty films with clean provenance and decent scans than three thousand of unknown origin.

How we check rights

The archive is hosted in the European Union, so the term is calculated under Directive 2006/116/EC, article 2(2): protection expires seventy years after the death of the last surviving person among the principal director, the author of the screenplay, the author of the dialogue, and the composer of music written specifically for the film.

That last clause is the one that catches people out. A film whose director and writers died a century ago can still be protected because its original score was written by someone who died in the 1970s. Several titles that are routinely described as public domain are not in this archive for exactly that reason.

Every title page names the person the calculation turns on and the year the term expired. If you think we have one wrong, please say so — see below.

Scans and restoration

Where a good scan already exists in a public collection, we use it. Where one does not, we work from the best print we can get and do the minimum: stabilisation, dust removal, and a frame rate that matches how the film was shot rather than how it was later transferred. We do not colourise, we do not interpolate frames, and we keep the original intertitles.

Artwork on this site is our own. Original posters have their own authors and their own terms, and are usually still protected.

Supported devices

Any current browser on desktop, iOS and Android. There is no app, no account requirement and no DRM.

Report a rights issue

If you hold rights in something here, or believe our term calculation is wrong, write to rights@drova.top with the title and the basis. We take titles down while we check, not after.

Contact

General: hello@drova.top