He's scanning the product of the New York State Newspaper Project, which is/was a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1982-2010 and the New York State Library/Archives. That project got access to these old newspapers, scanned the paper to microfilm, etc. That required alot of time and money.
Tom does a cool thing, but he's utilizing the work product of the government, mostly using the library system to provide him with the films at little or no cost, and will almost certainly sell the collection either himself when he needs to or via his estate.
Meanwhile, the microfilms will be around for hundreds of years.
He's scanning the product of the New York State Newspaper Project, which is/was a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1982-2010 and the New York State Library/Archives. That project got access to these old newspapers, scanned the paper to microfilm, etc. That required alot of time and money.
Tom does a cool thing, but he's utilizing the work product of the government, mostly using the library system to provide him with the films at little or no cost, and will almost certainly sell the collection either himself when he needs to or via his estate.
Meanwhile, the microfilms will be around for hundreds of years.