Ruminations on copyright and blogs

So, in the wake of The Telos Affair, I’ve been thinking about the astonishing tangle that is copyright law and the even more astonishing tangle that is copyright law applied to online documents.

( Somewhat meandering train of thought )

In any case, I do not recommend anyone go and register their journal or blog with the Copyright Office. It's too much cost for not enough return, as the (laggard) laws currently stand. For those who are concerned, I do recommend a copyright notice, eg "Copyright Your Name, DateBlogStarted-CurrentDate". A printed copy, from an exported pdf, that has been notarized or otherwise officially date stamped may also be of some assistance if you decide to play the first few rounds of the C&D game of chicken. The best approach, however, would seem to be collective action within our own community, since that is most likely where any such wholesale copying will take place. As The Telos Affair demonstrates, it may be possible to smack an offender's hands hard enough to make them desist, even if they don't have the intellectual wherewithal to figure out why.