Copyright issue, replace bitmaps by empty frame

The draft option to graphicx will do what you want. It will make an empty box of the exact size that would be occupied by the picture, since the dimensions are still computed from the picture after applying all the options:

\usepackage[draft]{graphicx}

If you want to include a particular picture, use the draft=false option:

\includegraphics[draft=false,<other options>]{filename}

The draft option will print the file name inside the box; if you want something else, the following patch, to be added to your preamble after loading graphicx, will do:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\Gin@setfile}{\ttfamily\expandafter\strip@prefix\meaning\@tempa}{\@missingcopyright}{}{}

\def\@missingcopyright{%
  \tiny
  \begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}}
    Figure omitted due to\\
    missing permission\\
    % comment the following line if you don't want to show the file name
    \ttfamily\expandafter\strip@prefix\meaning\@tempa 
  \end{tabular}}
\makeatother

I've added a possible definition of \@missingcopyright which should explain why the picture is missing; if you don't want the file name, just remove the line starting with \ttfamily. If you want no message at all, just remove \@missingcopyright from the \patchcmd line (and the definition of \@missingcopyright).