On August 24, 1912, U.S. copyright protection was extended to motion pictures. Prior to this, motion pictures could only be registered as a series of still photographs. “Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze” (also known as “Fred Ott’s Sneeze”), a short, sternutational film of one of Thomas Edison’s assistants registered in 1894, is the oldest surviving motion picture deposited as still photographs. From the History of Copyright Timeline at the U.S. Copyright Office.

By W.K.-L. Dickson (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.13462/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.