Am I allowed to use images for a series of videos I am making for a university professor?

Question

I am a motion graphics designer, and I have been hired by a professor at Stanford University to make a series of videos to be used for instructional purposes for his students. Since the videos are being used for educational purposes, do I have to pay for rights to use copyrighted images? Currently I am just using images that are in the public domain, but sometimes its hard finding an image I want, and it would just be easier to use an image I found of google images or a similar site. I'm also not sure whether if the professor will be selling the videos or providing them for free to his students.

Answer 1

No. For any copyrighted image picture, graph etc you must write and ask permission, you tell them the use and they will grant it or not. Whether they charge or not depends (but you can then not use the image if its costly), you must keep the letters to allow use on file incase of any dispute. Even when I did my masters thesis for a one time use in the paper, I had to write and get permission, although no one charged me anything. The whole point of copyrighting is to prevent unauthorized usage.

Answer 2

You are limited to public domain. You MUST obtain permission of copyright holder to use copyrighted material, and usually pay the copyright owner's fees, whatever the owner requires for the specified use. If those videos are sold, you must pay the copyright owner(s).

Answer 3

If you are getting paid for these videos, it does not count as an educational purpose for YOU, no matter what he/she plans to do with them. So no.