Shop Project - Documentation
Image Rights Strategy & Asset Sourcing (Hobby Budget)
Strategic guide for budget-friendly and legally secure management of product images within the marketplace for the development year 2026.
The Safety Roadmap for Media Assets
To completely eliminate copyright infringements, the system is based on a three-tier image hierarchy:
- Own Photographs: The safest source. Physically available collectibles (trading cards, stamps, model trains) are photographed directly and stored in `public/img/articles/`.
- Community Images (User Generated Content - UGC): Our most important scaling lever. Users upload images and must confirm via checkbox: *"I created the photo myself and allow permanent display on this platform"*. Legal protection is achieved via the host provider privilege.
- AI Images (Temporary Placeholders): Generation of media for visual enrichment of categories or products without images. Strict requirement: No visible brand logos (e.g., Pokémon symbols, Märklin lettering) may be generated to avoid trademark infringement.
Niche Tricks for Free Image Sourcing
Since automated, paid image APIs are unsuitable in the initial phase, the project relies on three free and legal alternatives:
- Wikimedia Commons: Using free collections under CC0 (Public Domain) or CC-BY (Attribution) terms. This is highly effective for historical stamps or older model train series.
- The Embed Technique: Instead of copying and hosting images locally (risk of copyright infringement), official media is embedded directly from the manufacturers' social media accounts (Instagram/Twitter). Legally, this is generally not considered reproduction since the source file remains on their servers.
- Catalog Calls (Crowdsourcing): Unknown or rare products are initially assigned a neutral icon (e.g., a magnifying glass), combined with the text: *"Do you have a photo of this model? Upload it and support the collector community!"* Collectors enjoy showcasing their rarities.