Question: I have found an old newspaper clipping from 1912 on Ancestry.com that I would like to print out and distribute. Am I legally allowed to do so, or is the clipping still held under copyright? Does the answer change if the newspaper is now defunct (The *San Francisco Call*)?

Answer: 
The San Francisco Call (among other papers) is available online at the [California Digital Newspaper Collection](http://cdnc.ucr.edu). The copyright blurb on that site says 

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> All newspapers published before January 1, 1923 are in the public domain and therefore have no restrictions on use. If publishing, quoting from, or otherwise reproducing the images from this collection, we request that you credit the CDNC as follows: California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside, <http://cdnc.ucr.edu>.
> 
> 
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For more information on copyright of images from this collection, see their [about](http://cdnc.ucr.edu/about_us.html) link.

All of this implies to me that you can just get a copy of the same newspaper from the CDNC and not worry about Ancestry's policies.
The problem is not the copyright it is the Terms of Service. The newspaper itself is out of copyright so if you had taken your own image of an original it would be legal to distribute without any concern. However the contract you enter into when you sign up for Ancestry allow you to use THEIR images of the original ONLY IN THE WAYS THEY APROVE! This is the contract you sign as a member. This usually does not allow for any republication or distribution of the image. This is because the access to these documents is the commodity that Ancestry sells. It wouldn't make any sense for them to allow you to share their images because what they want is for your entire family to purchase access to the site via their subscriptions.