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: 
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, you are not my client.

Your rights regarding clippings found on Ancestry.com and similar content-providing sites are **limited by Terms of Service first, copyright second**; *their Terms of Service may limit your rights even if the clipping is free of copyright*.
Once you know the clipping exists, it may be relatively easy to locate the same on another site, but there you'll be bound by *their* Terms of Service...

There generally are multiple copyrights involved; there is the original content and publication, there is the photographing and digitisation of that content, and possibly some image manipulation to enhance the image (and recognise it as theirs...).

If you found an original paper in your attic, you would not have to worry about those Terms of Service, but would you'd still have to deal with copyright law, which is a topic unto itself. However, a quick answer to your second question; that a newspaper is defunct does not imply that all their content is in the public domain. You may need to track down the current copyright holder.

**Tips**: 

1. The Terms of Service do not only restrict, but probably *allow* limited usage as well.
2. Do not forget that you have *fair use* rights for copyrighted content.
3. The page that shows the clipping probably mentions the copyright status, current copyright holder or collection provider.
4. Articles elsewhere summarise copyright laws for various countries.
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.