Many official sites explicitly forbid the distribution of their images, so I try to avoid using them, if I can.

However, websites shut down, card sets go out of production, the information disappears. We need that information. But we don't always have time to process it (=put it on ACO properly).

I am thinking of two things. 1) a private admin only collection of images collected, strictly for information purposes, from Yahoo Japan auctions, from publisher websites, from online stores. This will not be available to anyone else, no matter how much you ask! :) Each image will be sourced, both in the filename and the description.

I think that's OK, it's basically an online version of my secret stockpile, but extremely limited.

More controversial: Put images from OFFICIAL websites ONLY on ACO, link back to the original site, clearly state copyright, put the company name in the file name. Remove these images when we get better scans or info.

I've been reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use, and while the scans may be a bit iffy (probably OK, unless someone starts taking the large scans and makes fakes. Which is actually a pretty big concern, which one reason you have to REGISTER to see the big scans. ;p), using the manufacturer images is probably OK.

I'd love to hear feedback from members and admins about this.

This website is run off servers in the US, and although I live in Japan, I'm from the US, so ACO is pretty much under US law.

Anisa.