http://www.copyrightaction.com/foru...s-non-consensual-photography-in-public?page=1
bad times.
Please write your MP about this, templates are here;
http://www.copyrightaction.com/digital-economy-bill-mp-letter-template
The end game is now in sight. The Digital Economy Bill is now expected to become law within the next 6 weeks. It introduces orphan works usage rights, which - unless amended, which HMG says it will not - will allow the commercial use of any photograph whose author cannot be identified through a suitably negligent search. That is potentially about 90% of the photos on the internet.
Copyright in photos is essentially going to cease to exist, since there is no ineradicable way of associating ownership details short of plastering your name right across the image
bad times.
So Flickr, Google Images, personal websites, all of it will become commercial publishers' photolibrary. A fee will have to be deposited with a collecting society in case the owner spots the usage. The author who discovers his work has been used as an orphan can then make a claim and receive a percentage of the peanuts, after the collecting society has had its share, and the government its share.
This is perhaps a slight improvement over earlier proposals, whereby HMG egregiously planned to keep all the fees itself.
Essentially, if photos were cars, so long as the numberplate is missing (or you can get rid of it and claim it was), you'll be able to legally TWOC and use it on payment of a fee to the Government.
Please write your MP about this, templates are here;
http://www.copyrightaction.com/digital-economy-bill-mp-letter-template