What Jill said was very well said. I'd like to add to it just a little.

When I was selling a lot of chips on eBay, occasionally I'd see someone offering the same chip using my scan in their auction listing. My policy has always been, ask for permission as a common courtesy, and I'd always say yes. Always!

There have been occasions where people have taken other people's scans for use in their auction listings that show a chip in better (sometimes much better) condition than what the seller actually had.

Some people have been lazy enough to not bother copying one of my scans and uploading it onto their own website space for an auction listing, they just typed in the URL of the scan on my website space. When that happened, and I found out about it, all of a sudden what that person was showing as what was for sale in that auction was something totally different. I'd just change the image at the URL in question. They might have been trying to auction off a casino chip, but the image would show something pretty rude instead of a casino chip.

I work as a journalist as a second career. While some of my work is published in magazines and newspapers, most of it is published on the web. Publishing an article or photo on the web is no different than publishing it in hard copy form. Using it without permission is just as much of a copyright violation as it would be if it were reprinted from a hard copy publication. It is pretty much an industry standard that if you want to provide a clickable link to a published story (or photo) on a web-based publication, please do. Please don't cut and paste a verbatim copy of a web-based publication article (or photo) without permission. Doing so is in violation of copyright laws. ....that's why you'll see Andy and Travis provide links to articles related to casinos and gaming in that manner here on a regular basis.

....and before I forget, welcome to the hobby Will!

Bob