Orphan
From The Glossary of Digital Photography
An image without metadata to identify the owner of the copyright. Currently attempts are being made to amend US copyright law to allow people to use without restriction or payment creative works such as photographs when the owner cannot be determined. Metadata allows the copyright owner (usually the creator or photographer) to embed contact information inside the image format. This information is easily read by programs such as Photoshop. It is therefore important for photographers to always embed contact metadata into all images to keep them from becoming orphans. Also photographers need to be aware that some software or software features such as Photoshop's Save for the Web function, will strip out metadata before saving the image. See metadata
