The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works - which is ratified by most countries, including the USA - declares copyright to be granted when an artwork is created. Registration is not required for the author get the copyright.
In the USA registration with the Copyright Office is useful for e.g. legal reasons (lawsuits) but that does not mean that non-registered is not protected. Copyright still applies.
In other countries there is no registration at all, and also there copyright violations are settled in court when necessary.
In the USA only materials registered can be granted monetary and attorney fees relief from lawsuits brought forth. The US was part of the Berne Convention but opted to keep intact that provision. There is also the fair use doctrine in the US that allows use of copyright material as long as that use does not supersede the value to the author, such uses would be educational, or like here on Steemit published for debate or criticism. Also copyrights do expire in almost every country, with each country having a different set number of years that those right expired, with most generally around fifty years.
Here on Steemit, every work that you do not own and publish requires a commercial license. Whether you make a penny or not. the purpose of publishing your work on Steemit is to receive currency -or you can decline payout, and even then it requires a commercial license(!) since your account is attached to a wallet and dependable on -pending- pay-outs. Period. Do not spread misleading information like this, this will only lead to confusion.
Yes, you are right that there are works that require an application to be indexed as copyrighted material. But this is only applicable and interesting to and for bigger companies and not for freelance content creators who work on their own. Whenever they work for bigger companies that require that kind of license, the requirement to deposit a license to be indexed is utter nonsense since -all created work is protected by copyright the moment it has been created, by law, and by any law. The company, however, can insist that the work needs to be applied for those kinds of licenses that require a fee to be paid, which that same company will pay. Other than that, what you are saying does not apply at all to the above comment and question in mind.
I hope you are aware that I did go look it up, and yes it is copyrighted but in the US unless you file and pay fees to your copyright, trade mark, patents you cannot sue in a court of law for monetary damages. Sorry to burst your bubble but that's just the way it goes down, I could sit here all day and post news articles off media sites for debates/discussions under the fair use law and as long as I am not altering that content, claiming it as mine or making a considerable amount of money to my benefit there's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. I am sure Fox News doesn't care I made two cents posting some article. Actually on the other site I blog on I do that all night long, and to probably your horror so do hundreds of other people blogging on that site. Don't believe me go check it out, it's call Disqus.
Not true my friend. In the US you do not need to file anything to have ownership. If you create it then you own it and someone has to show they owned it before you did in order to dispute that claim.
If you file and get a document from the federal govt. like a i.e. a copyright showing that you had possession and ownership of the created piece of IP on that particular date when it was filed, it can certainly help in a court of law, but you can do that at the time you sue if you do not have it. So once you discover there is financial gain from your work being made by someone else, if you have not done so already, you simply register and then you are set.
How is everyone using everyone else's content right now? What you see going on right now online is content creators being in a transition phase. No one knows how to react because it has all come on so fast. But that will change. But understand that technically anytime someone publishes someone else's original work without permission, or a license it is illegal. Whether it is in a book or a magazine or a website. It is just that the laws never accounted for something like the Internet. What you will see over the next 5 to 7 years are new laws and no one will be able to to just post someone else's content without permission, or license without a legal repercussion. I actually hear that a company is working on a blockchain solution to prevent this from happening.
It is coming and this is why you see companies like Facebook now trying to get right with content creators. I have been involved in this issue and have been a publisher for 30 years. Thanks.
Like I said you do own it, without being registered the most you can do is go to court for a cease and desist order. If you are filed you can sue for monetary damages. You can not sue for monetary damages that would have existed before you filed, like if someone was using your work and making money before you filed, you could only sue for damages that occurred after you filed. Plus there is still the fair use doctrine, which gives you a right to use another's work as long as you accredit them and there is no significant monetary return.