Expert: Shannon Moore - 8/24/2009

Question
I have written a book and I want to include an article and picture I found in library archives from a 1902 Chicago Tribune.
I am thinking it should be in the public domain but I have not been unsuccessful contacting The Tribune legal department. They have one of those "run you around in circles" telephone systems.

Answer
Dear Dan,

Anything published prior to 1923 will be in the public domain. Here's a handy guide: http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

However, as with anything geared towards intellectual property, there's always exceptions to the rule. Here's what Chicago Tribune's Terms of Service page says:

Copyright. All information, content, services and software displayed on, transmitted through, or used in connection with Chicagotribune.com, with the exception of User Content as defined below, including for example news articles, reviews, directories, guides, text, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips, video, html, source and object code, trademarks, logos, and the like (collectively, the "Content"), as well as its selection and arrangement, is owned by Tribune Interactive, Inc. ("TI"), and/or its affiliated companies, licensors and suppliers. You may use the Content online only, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use, and you may download or print a single copy of any portion of the Content solely for your personal, non-commercial use, provided you do not remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from such Content. If you operate a Web site and wish to link to Chicagotribune.com, you may do so provided you agree to cease such link upon request from Chicagotribune.com. No other use is permitted without prior written permission of Chicagotribune.com. The permitted use described in this Paragraph is contingent on your compliance at all times with these Terms of Service.

You may not republish any portion of the Content on any Internet, Intranet or extranet site or incorporate the Content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any Content to others, whether or not for payment or other consideration, and you may not archive, modify, copy, frame, cache, reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the Content. You may not scrape or otherwise copy our Content without permission. You agree not to decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble any software or other products or processes accessible through Chicagotribune.com, not to insert any code or product or manipulate the content of Chicagotribune.com in any way that affects the user's experience, and not to use any data mining, data gathering or extraction method.

Requests to use Content for any purpose other than as permitted in these Terms of Service should be directed to ctcpermissions@tribune.com. In certain cases, you may be able to use individual stories that appear on Chicagotribune.com through online functionality we have specifically designated (e.g., to e-mail a story to a friend or to purchase the rights to reproduce a story for other use). In such cases, we will tell you directly in the portion of the Content you may use or you will see a link in the Content itself.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/chi-copyright,0,4274785.htmlstory -- Link to above

Hope this helps! Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.

Warmest regards,
Shannon Moore
http://www.tmexpress.com
http://tmexpress.blogspot.com