Sophia, if you are not seeling the DVDs and you are using them for an academic purpose, you *might* be able to get away with using copyrighted images under the fair use doctrine. Have your bosses even *heard* of copyright? Actually, if there is a press office or news service at your school they might have some images that the school already owns copyright on, or at least be able to give you ideas about where to look (or if it's even possible, which my instinct is, like yours, not so much.)

Thanks flea! I can call public relations, although I think they sell their photographs, too (but, for , like $10 a pop, rather than $639.00)

And to make it more ridiculous, we are selling the DVD's! For, like $300.00 each.

Have your bosses even *heard* of copyright?

No kidding! This is the big boss, but my direct boss was using images from corbis, with the corbis logo imprinted on them on her marketing brochures! And she swears she didn't know that she couldn't until I told her!

Well, since large numbers of people don't know where France is, I suppose this shouldn't be such a surprise.

ita, you scare me. I am a healthy person, goddamnit!

And yet, I am realizing that my moral code (or lack of wanting to be prosecuted for copywright infringement) has actually made my life harder, as I am now the one looking for these images!

Emily reminds me of Allyson Hannigan.

Even my husband commented on this and he doens't even watch Buffy.

ION, curling is such a weird sport.

Sophia, if you are not seeling the DVDs and you are using them for an academic purpose, you *might* be able to get away with using copyrighted images under the fair use doctrine.

Not even that -- you might be able to find a stock photo company (or just a photographer, which is probably a better bet) who will let you use them without a fee for a do-gooder project, but since it's something that you're publishing and distributing, you'll still need to get permission and give credit. Fair use is actually better defined in the academic context than it is out in the wider world, but it tends to focus just on what you can do in the classroom, not on what you publish.

(Also, your looniversity's whatever-they-call-the-ethics-review-board may require that anyone who's recognizable in your publications sign a release, even if they aren't any kind of a research subject. Many do. @@)

(disclaimer: not a lawyer, but that's my understanding based on what I have to tell people at work.)

I need to find high resololution photographs of overweight kids. Without paying any money for them! Previously, they just did a google image search, right clicked and saved, and used them for their brochures!!!!

Sophia, there are some free image sites on the web. A lot of them will balk at something you're profiting from, though. Plus, there might be some issues with using pictures of minors - I'd check into that before using random images.

I don't want to scare you, flea. It's just that the range of things that could be causing your problem can be very wide. It's probably your sciatic nerve. But then what? It's simplest to get a pro to tell you what to do next.

I'm not a fan of internet diagnoses in general.

Public Service Announcement: If you didn't catch Thursday's hysterical episode of the Colbert Report, it should be re-running tonight at 8:30 EST.

I can't wait until Jon and/or Stephen cover Hair-Trigger Cheney's version of skeet shooting.

Aiyiyi. How many times must a person be told we do not have an account for you, go sign up for one here?

I don't care how insistent you are, or how many different possible IDs you give me, THERE IS NO SUCH ACCOUNT.

Ayup, it's monday.