In order to enter into a copyright lawsuit in the United States, you first have to register your copyrighted work.
By my understanding, not registering just limits how much you can sue for (actual damages as opposed to statutory, or something like that - actual damages would be minimal, though).
No, you have to register before you can sue. The distinction between actual and statutory damages is that you only get actual damages if the only violation was before you registered.
As for the rest of your post, I think we're pretty much at an impasse. :)