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I’m so confused about American copyright law. I was always under the impression that copyright is granted automatically and you didn’t need to “register” it, contrarily to a trademark which must be registered and is only valid for its specific industry.

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That was my belief too, but: "Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work."

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

(Makes me wonder if, back in the day, every song that was downloaded and then pursued by the RIAA was registered...)

Which law firm took the plaintiffs and filed the case without registering copyright?

This isn't a good sign.

It can take several months to register a copyright, so they may have started the process and took a gamble on how slow the court would move, knowing they could fallback on the works that were registered if it didn't work out.

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