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 real question here is "When does a copyright expire?"

[About.com](http://inventors.about.com/od/copyrights/a/expiration.htm) summarizes the situation in the US with this table:

> 
> * Published before 1923 - now in public domain
> * Published from 1923 to 1963 - When published with a copyright notice © or "Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]" - copyright protection lasts 28 years and could be renewed for an additional 67 years for a total of 95 years. If not renewed, now in public domain.
> * Published from 1923 to 1963 - When published with no notice - now in public domain
> * Published from 1964 to 1977 - When published with notice - copyright protection lasts 28 years for first term; automatic extension of 67 years for second term for a total of 95 years.
> * Created before 1/1/1978 but not published - copyright notice is irrelevant - copyright protection lasts for the life of author and 70 years or 12/31/2002, whichever is greater
> * Created before 1/1/1978 and published between 1/1/1978 and 12/31/2002 - notice is irrelevant - copyright protecion lasts the life of author and 70 years or 12/31/2047, whichever is greater
> * Created 1/1/1978 or after - When work is fixed in tangible medium of expression - notice is irrelevant - copyright protecion lasts for the life of author and 70 years based on the the longest living author if jointly created or if work of corporate authorship, works for hire, or anonymous and pseudonymous works, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation.
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Given that your clipping was published before 1923, it is in the public domain. I'm not sure if Ancestry.com can make any claims against it -- the digital copy of the clipping may be a copyrightable work (IANAL). If this is the case, you at least have a reference that you could use to search for an alternative, unencumbered digitized version of the clipping.

If had been published between 1923 and 1978, it *might* still be under copyright, but that's only if it were published with a notice *and* was properly renewed. Various works from that period have fallen into the public domain because they were published without a copyright notice and/or the copyright was not renewed. If the publisher was defunct (like the SF Call), then it's likely the copyright wasn't renewed and the work is in the public domain.

Also, not that it's necessarily *legal*, but if the publisher is defunct, and nobody owns the copyrights, then who's to enforce them?