Legal Question in Technology Law in New York

Re: copyright

If by "use," you mean commercial use or possibly even any other form of public use (short of journalism or academic research), you would need releases from the individuals portrayed on the photos to the extent they are recognizable to avoid infringing on their privacy/publicity rights. Photos of scenes where individuals are not recognizable (faces too small or otherwise obstructed) may be used without specific permission of the persons portrayed but you may need the permission of the persons or organizations that hold copyright in the photos in any event. These could be individual photographers or, more likely, schools themselves or the publishers who put them out.

As far as magazine and book illustrations that you proposed to use on furniture or any other useful objects you are likely to run into copyright infringement problems because you need a license from the copyright holders of the illustrations to incorporate copyrighted works into your own. Some of these copyrights might have already passed into public domain and can therefore be used without permission but each illustration would need to be examined separately to determine if copyright in it still subsists.

Feel free to contact my offices if you need consultation with respect to specific works you want to clear and/or license from the owners.

The above reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such.