Happened to me - some emails helped :)
Last year, I made a (very bad) picture with my BB of a plane on AMS airport that had been evacuated on the platform. For some reasons, while I was flying, Dutch news outlets picked up my tweeted picture, some with attribution, some without. I mailed them all requesting the regular usage fee for the photo. Some complied immediately (with an apology about not being able to contact me prior to using it), some came with lame excuses like the Beeb.
Knowing copyright law and legalese a bit helped, after some email exchanges with the laggards, hinting at me not stopping before we'd meet in court for the worst offenders, all of them paid up.
I think it's a silly game. If I make a newsworthy picture and publish it, and they cannot reach me before, say, the evening news or some other publication deadline, fine - but play fair and cough up a reasonable usage fee (there are standard rates in the industry, at least in .NL) when contacted by the copyright holder.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
