OT: Where to get royalty free stills and video for a project

p@mast3rs wrote on 12/30/2004, 9:34 PM

I am working on a project that covers murders in general. I'd like to get some stills and/or video of the more famous serial killers. I want to avoid copyright violations. Im just trying to help out the kid next door with his school presentation and I am running into a brick wall trying to help them.

Thanks.

edit: forgot to mention free if at all possible.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/31/2004, 12:06 AM

If it's for a school presentation, one time show, then Fair Use applies and you don't need royalty free or anything else. There are thousands of images of various serial killers on the web, and most of them are from police files anyway, which effectively makes them public domain.

p@mast3rs wrote on 12/31/2004, 12:11 AM

Awesome, much thanks. Just for my own curiousness, if it were for commercial use, do crime scene photos and mug shots, etc... still fall under public domain with the ability to commercialize?

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 12/31/2004, 6:24 AM

So you're telling me that if I'm doing something that will only be shown one time, I can use almost anything or is it only if it's a school presentation?

If so, are there any other presentations that this may apply to?

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/31/2004, 7:52 AM

I believe its because it’s a school presentation. If you read the Fair Use Act, it talks about usage:

...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

It goes on to talk about other factors involved. When in doubt, get a lawyer. ;-)

~jr

p@mast3rs wrote on 12/31/2004, 8:54 AM

is there like a national archive or something that you can download FREE video/stills to use in commercial ventures?

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 12/31/2004, 9:18 AM

closest thing that I know of would be sharing sites. Where you post things that you copyright but allow almost anyone to use, and they, in turn, allow you to use theirs. They do it with still photo, but I'm not sure if they do it with video.

That being said, I don't remember the site that I used to look at, but sometimes you come across some good stuff.

Now that being said, I know that Digital Juice offferes a ton of Stock footage for a very VERY reasonable price, and I've heard that it's a good selection, and now they have a second one.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/31/2004, 9:30 AM

Try Creative Commons.

Jay