There's no certainty that JPEG files will be locked down soon, so this isn't an immediate crisis. We'd add that there's also hope for a compromise: the Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued for a middle road approach in a presentation to the JPEG Committee. It sees value in encrypted data as a filter (say, making sure that only your Facebook friends see a photo), but doesn't want any data to be non-removable or used to prevent copying. It'd rather have services give you more control over that data, and make sure that any security measures are based on open standards that won't break functionality. While the JPEG team might not take this advice to heart, it at least knows that it has some options.

[Image credit: Randy Kruzan via Getty Images]