The way messages thread, this would have been out of place and look like an orphan, so I just wanted to start on the subject itself.

I'm am not supporting one side or another, nor do I defend any rights claim or use of TCG which appears to be the topic of interest. I missed most of the back and forth.

Fair Use Defense

If you use the photo in a way that could infringe the subject’s copyright or trademark, you may argue fair use. Courts consider four factors.

Purpose and character of the use (commercial vs. nonprofit/educational)

Nature of the copyrighted work

Amount and substantiality used

Effect on the market for the original work

There you are. On these grounds AI services have scrapped images from public domain collections. There's also a question of who owns the photo, which is pretty simple, "Under U.S. copyright law, you own the copyright in your own photograph from the moment it is fixed in a tangible medium (e.g., captured on film or digital storage) " US Copyright Office. However, and always with law there are other considerations and questions. "you do not automatically own the rights to the subject matter you photographed. If the subject is a trademark or a separately copyrighted image, the original creator or owner retains their own copyright or trademark rights" Which means the casino owns their trademark and logo and the chip manufacturer owns the design rights.

Taking that a bit further, anything that's created and posted on a Website is protected and copyrighted. But I'm pretty sure that means the pages and descriptions, and created content. You can't copyright a copy of something and claim it's yours. Here's a related example: I scan a photo of a antique casino photo. I own the image and the rights, but because the copyright has expired, I can re-copyright something, just by taking a photo of it. The subject is public domain. I can take a photo of an expired copyright book, and I own the rights to the photo, but my image is not protected from use by others, because the subject of the image is out of copyright. At least that's one version of the argument.

It comes down to this. Is The Chipguide actually protected, as a collection? The data and descriptions should be. But are the images protected, as the right to them is not owned by TCG, only the photographer. Once someone contributes those images, have they given permission to only TCG or have they created a situation for shared use. What wording does TCG use? Is that Creative Commons or exclusive or what are the terms.

My main point in this is, it's not as simple and easy as, "I took a photo, I own all future use of that photo and all the rights".

Good Luck and best wishes for all.