Yes that is a very valid point Mike.
It must happen a lot, that a RM member adds a photo to the museum whilst it was in their collection, but as we all know radios do get sold eventually.
I did a swap with the original owner of this rare KB export model,
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/kolsterbr_gr13t.html so it will be seen to be in 2 collections, when in reality there is probably only the one example in the UK and Europe and that is now in my collection.
It is possible for a RM member to, in retrospect, edit their own photos of radios and tick to say if a radio is in their collection or not. But I bet not many have done that when they have sold a radio. You cant criticise the Radio Museum for that.
I have uploaded more photos of radios NOT in my collection, about 1500, (and declared them as such) than I have of radios in my collection. Many of these are radios which I have bought, never intending to add them to my collection, as I have now limited my collecting to only a few brands. They have passed through my hands, been restored (or not) and sold on, or given away, not as a business I hasten to add but a hobby because I like restoring them.
I have also uploaded photos form Ebay, e.g. unusual radios I have come across when there have been no photos present on RM, or creating a new model page when the radio is not even in the museum. This is to everyone's benefit and it helps buyers, sellers and collectors to identify the radios.
I would estimate that about 15% of all vintage radio sellers on ebay have just copied the data from RM and pasted it into their ebay listing, I see it all the time.
So as far as I am concerned it like a sort of reciprocal arrangement that benefits everybody and harms nobody.
RM will refuse any photo which has identifiable copyright or watermarks, the same goes with schematics.
But I do accept that their may be the odd well meaning rogue member who may edit out markings and upload photos and schematics, not necessarily to boost their points but probably because they want to see a complete picture of all our radio heritage.
When the schematics are published, so many have paper copies and they are also in the public domain, it is impossible to identify and stop this from happening. But rest assured RM will take action and credit or remove items if they are notified of any infringements, in the same way they would expect forums and such to take action if they were notified of any RM material being used elsewhere.
Strewth, I didn't expect to type this much, I am going for a lie down.
Mike