Quote:
Originally Posted by Namekuseijin
Obsolete laws from a time when self-publishing was virtually non-extant. Today anyone can readily publish intellectual work in a whim. Who's gonna apply for copyright every single time they publish a new poem in their blogs?
You've published at a certain date, you're the author, you have the rights over copies, case closed.
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In the US, if you don't register that copyright (either within 3 months, or within 3 months of a dispute--I forget which), you only have the right to sue for actual damages, not statutory ones--which means that if someone grabs your poem and publishes it against your will, you'll have a hell of a time getting a ruling for anything other than what they're selling it for. If they're just reposting it on their blog, or using it in a free flyer (maybe advertising their book club on campus), the damages are pretty much nil.