WJhonson@aol.com wrote:

Are you sure of this? It's my understanding that you have the same legal remedies.

See [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Code/Title_17/Chapter_4/Sections... Sections 411 and 412], notably the latter

In any action under this title, other than an action brought for a violation of the rights of the author under section 106A(a) http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Code/Title_17/Chapter_1/Section_106A, an action for infringement of the copyright of a work that has been preregistered under section 408(f) http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Code/Title_17/Chapter_4/Section_408 before the commencement of the infringement and that has an effective date of registration not later than the earlier of 3 months after the first publication of the work or 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement, or an action instituted under section 411(b), no award of statutory damages or of attorney's fees, as provided by sections 504 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:WikiProject_US_Code/code:17USC504 and 505 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:WikiProject_US_Code/code:17USC505, shall be made for—

(1) any infringement of copyright in an unpublished work commenced
before the effective date of its registration; or
(2) any infringement of copyright commenced after first
publication of the work and before the effective date of its
registration, unless such registration is made within three months
after the first publication of the work.

Ec

In a message dated 10/11/2008 2:38:27 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, saintonge@telus.net writes:

but without registration the available legal remedies are more limited.