Our City has a Newspaper that was founded in 1847. A number of Years ago bought about 10 Very large Hard Cover Binders that were filled with the daily newspaper from the 1880's. Had each days paper from each month .
Somehow The Newspaper heard I had them and decided I needed to give them to them. No mention of compensation or purchasing them from me, just hand them over . Ya Right they had sold these binders off years before
Asked them if they would give me Their Daily Newspaper for free. Not a chance on that one. They finally backed off
I also bought approx 800 original Prints from a Photographic Studio that was in business in the City for over 100 years under 2 names. The city now owns the majority of the negatives from this Studio. It was purchased and donated to them by Jim Basillie co CEO Of (Rim) That created Blackberry. A amazing and very important collection of Canadiana from the late 1890's to 1990 or so. That deal was touch and go it nearly went to the U.S. I am super glad that did not happen
Around the same time The city acquired the Negatives I purchased over 800 Original Prints for the Studio plus other items from it. These Prints were sold to the Public the 100 years plus the Studio was in Business. They sold 1000's of them over the years. The City got it into their head when they heard I had the collection it was theirs and demanded them back. Not a chance I bought them privately from a collector who had purchased these items over the years
Made for some interesting discussions etc between the City and Myself They had the rights to the Negatives not the prints or memorialbia . They now own about 90% of the Negs. There are others that were also sold before their deal with the Studio
Took a few years before they finally realized my Collection of Prints etc had nothing to do with them and they backed off.
There are some very rare Negs the Studio did they did not get. They are in a Private Collection. Bought and obtained legally 5 years before the City got the Collection. I know where they are and the person has no intention of selling them. If he does he legally owns them and can. The others were bought by a Publishing Company that was going to produce a book about the City but went under before doing so. (They bought some of The best of the Collection) Apparently these are still in storage
Bad enough when Individuals want items or use of them that one has legally obtained for nothing but worse when places like cities and businesses feel they are entitled.
weavers
