Problems copying and trashing files

Question

OK - here's what I assume are two seperate issues, or they may be related. (I'm running 10.3.9 on an iBook G4 and attempting to move files to a USB external).
I have a DVD of jpg photos I was attempted to copy onto an external hard drive. About half of the 400 photos copied fine, then I got an error message midway through the copy saying something relating to at least one of the files being busy (I don't remember exactly, but I think it was the same as the error message I have below).
I have already dumped the DVD's contents into iPhoto, so I decided to do it the long way and search through iPhoto's library in the finder. I found some of the photos I wanted to copy, and when I attempt to copy them to the same directory as the DVD photos were copied to, I get this message:
The selected items cannot all be put into the same location, because at least one of them named "**.jpg" is busy.
I tried to copy individual files, and I get this for multiple files. In some cases, there was already a file with the same name in the target folder, so I trashed the file in the target folder, emptied the trash, tried the individual file again and still get the same message. No program is running with these files, and these aren't the files that were being copied when I got the first message.
I went back and looked at the target folder and saw all the files that hadn't been copied are in there with a size of 0 kb. When I try to trash these, I get this error:
Preparing move to "Trash"
Some of the items you are moving are in use by another application. Moving the items can cause problems with the application using them. Are you sure you want to move the items?
I can click continue, but I have to do it for every file and there's about 200 of them.
So two issues: any way to get past the "file is busy" error to copy the files from my iPhoto directory to the target folder on the external? Any way to trash the files without clicking continue 200 times? And is the problem with the target volume or my iBook where the iPhoto library is? (I initially assumed the problem was with the target external, but the files giving me the "busy" error are on the iBook and give the message even when there is no file of the same name on the external.)
Any thoughts are appreciated.

Answer 1

Thanks for the response, but it doesn't address the issue I'm having. (To be fair, the issue I'm having is sort of buried in my long initial post, since as is plain from my next post, I'm An Idiot).
At any rate, what I'm looking for is this: the files that weren't properly copied are now sitting in a folder in my external hard drive, along with the files that were properly copied.
There are about 200 files which are just filenames with a size of 0k. I can find all these fine by sorting the folder window by size.
However, whenever I drag them to the trash, an error message pops up telling me the file is in use by another application. I can click on continue, but I get an error message for every file I drag to the trash. I don't feel like clicking continue 200 times, although I suppose I could. I was wondering if there's a way to tell the Finder these files are not actually in use, both to save my mouse finger now and possibly in the future if this problem repeats itself.
Thanks.