In practice, you'll have two stark choices to prevent being ripped off: remove your work from the internet entirely, or opt-out by registering it. And registration will be on a work-by-work basis.

"People can now use stuff without your permission," explained photo rights campaigner Paul Ellis. "To stop that you have to register your work in a registry - but registering stuff is an activity that costs you time and money. So what was your property by default will only remain yours if you take active steps, and absorb the costs, if it is formally registered to you as the owner."

Who benefits most?

I was sorely tempted to take a pic of one of David Cameron's kids then plaster it everywhere as an endorsement of a product. Could then say I found it on the net, it didn't have any identifiable data, I tried to do a reverse image search, made reasonable attempts and decided I'd use it. That's the kind of thing it would take.