I agree with Dave, getting children whose parents agree for them to be pohotographed for this specific purpose is the easiest way to go.  It eliminates any "gray area" you might be worried about.  Aside from using my own children, I have had very good luck children or grandchildren of fellow employees, board members, etc.  There is a level of trust from someone who is involved with the organization that you won't find elsewhere (they are more willing to sign away *all rights* to the images without a fuss).  I just recently took pictures of some staff kids for our Facebook page to promote our new Hands On History Center and they turned out pretty well- nice, informal, cute, pictures of kids using the museum.
 
I guess it depends on whether you just need images of kids, or you are looking for something *very* specific as far as the appearance of the children (age, race, hair and eye color, etc.)  If you have really specific needs, you may have trouble finding kids who fit the bill.
 
- Casandra Karl
Director, Mission Historical Museum


 
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Shana West <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Thanks, guys :) I should have clarified--these would be
creative-commons licensed images, so we'd have permission to use them.
But while I feel comfortable using someone's cc-licensed images of
raccoons (with the appropriate attributions). But raccoons don't tend
to get litigious. I did some reading online and it seems that the
museum's use falls under "editorial" use, but it feels like one of
those grey areas...

Cheers,
Shana

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 2:23 PM, David Harvey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Shana,
>
> In addition there is also the issue of who owns the copyright to the image
> if you lift one off the web.
>
> You are best off in having a open call for children in your community to be
> photographed for this - you could even do it as a nice marketing effort /
> contest.
>
> You can find information on model's releases at:
>
 http://asmp.org/tutorials/property-and-model-releases.html
>
> The forms are here:
> http://www.nyip.com/ezine/techtips/model-release.html
>
> Cheers!
> Dave
>
> David Harvey
> Senior Conservator and Museum Consultant
> Los Angeles, CA
>
> On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Jack Boulton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I would whole-heartedly suggest getting model releases. It's a very simple
>> form to organise and it can save you a whole host of headaches later on.
>>
>> What you might find is that a few people are 'funny' about signing away
>> 'all
>> rights' to a picture - sometimes this is understandable. If that is a
>> potential problem, then be specific about where the pictures will be used,
>> if you can.
>>
>> Regards
>> Jack
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
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