The same copyright system that allows the RIAA to go on a rampage of lawsuits and empowers movie studios to cripple fair use of their work is tying the hands of small copyright holders on the Web.
Worst hit of all are the bloggers, who often endure the worst kinds of infringement only to discover [...]

In the United States, though copyright protection takes effect the minute that a work is fixated into a tangible medium of expression, enforcing those rights is a much trickier matter. As according to the U.S. Copyright Office, registration with the USCO is a requirement before suing in Federal court.
Furthermore, only if a work is registered [...]