For the record, you can visit the government's
copyright website at:
www.copyright.gov
There you will find all pertinent information regarding copyrights, when
they exist, when they don't and who must acknowledge them.
 
The copyright office is very specific.  All materials are protected by
copyright from the moment they are created.  There is technically no need
to do ANYthing for your work to be protected by copyright.  Registering
it will provide you with proof of when it was created.  Publishing it
will also do that.  They are methods of time-stamping to help prove, if
neccessary, when the piece was ascribed to YOU, if another person comes
along and says, "Oh, no, I made this at such and such." But your work is
protected no matter what.
 
If the peaches logo was not actually registered, it was still put into
use as early as the unveiling of the website for last year's symposium,
many months before October.  This is a great time-stamp.
 
Melissa Rotert
[Posted in FML issue 4424]