Copyright question (photos for journalism website)

[Mike Lowe]

I teach a journalism class at my school, and 90% of what we cover is right here at the school, thus we don't need images from AP, Getty's, etc. However, when someone writes a movie/album/game review, we're sort of hampered.

Getty's etc. all charge something crazy, like $70 per image, so I'm wondering if there's a site to get cover art for media just for the purpose of reviews for either free or very cheap!?

I figured FOFC might be a good place to ask.

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

IANAL

Fair Use Wikipedia

Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

I teach a journalism class at my school, and 90% of what we cover is right here at the school, thus we don't need images from AP, Getty's, etc. However, when someone writes a movie/album/game review, we're sort of hampered.

Getty's etc. all charge something crazy, like $70 per image, so I'm wondering if there's a site to get cover art for media just for the purpose of reviews for either free or very cheap!?

I figured FOFC might be a good place to ask.

I can't speak to movies/music, but GamesPress is a solid resource for game assets. Some of what they have is freely accessible, some there's a nominal charge for (I wanna say I paid $5 for a couple hundred credits several years ago, and I still have quite a few of those left), but they also have contact information listed for the various game companies. If even the nominal fee is an issue, you may be able to contact somebody at the publisher or the publisher's PR company for assistance.

[Easy Mac]

Can you not just take a picture of the box or disc?

[Mike Lowe]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

IANAL

Fair Use Wikipedia

Thanks Ronnie...I'm familiar with fair use, but I sell advertising for the paper and I'm not sure if technically that's considered "for profit." The paper itself is free.

I skimmed that link, but didn't see anything mentioned about photography. It does say that as long as you're not using an entire work, it's fair...but how do you only use part of a picture without some silly cropping job!?

[Mike Lowe]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Can you not just take a picture of the box or disc?

Sometimes this would work, but when we're trying to review a movie coming out in the upcoming week, it might not be possible and I'd feel silly making students drive to the theatre just to get a stupid image!

[Ronnie Dobbs2]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

Thanks Ronnie...I'm familiar with fair use, but I sell advertising for the paper and I'm not sure if technically that's considered "for profit." The paper itself is free.

I skimmed that link, but didn't see anything mentioned about photography. It does say that as long as you're not using an entire work, it's fair...but how do you only use part of a picture without some silly cropping job!?

Fair enough, thought it was just a class and not with ads.

Perhaps a bit more relevant:

SPLC Guide to Fair Use

—Can I use a picture of a CD to illustrate a music review in my student newspaper?

The four-factor fair use test says that this use is probably going to be okay. To begin with, the purpose of this use would be to help you comment on and criticize the CD. The second and third factors—the nature of the work and the amount taken—would work against you, because CD cover designs are considered highly artistic and you would be using the entire cover. Yet, the most important factor, market effect, would probably be in your favor as it’s unlikely that a market exists for selling CD cover images to reviewers. You can make your fair use argument even stronger by shrinking the image and reproducing it in black-and-white.[13] Finally, if you have the CD available and can creatively shoot it yourself rather than pulling a picture off of the Internet, that will always be preferable to taking someone else’s picture for your use.