Overnight in the United Kingdom, something happened that is causing quite a stir. The UK introduced an Act called the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act.
One component of this is about photography. It uses 'orphaned works' as being now a public domain item, without copyright. The big issue here is that sites like Instagram and Facebook strip EXIF data when you upload your photos, thus someone else can come along, claim the work is 'orphaned' cause it has no owner details attached and claim it, make money of it, etc, with no recourse for the owner.
More details here : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04..._act_landgrab/
Photographers will be required to register their copyright (at a price) over their creative works, to protect themselves and their works.