Creative works are copyright by default.

Fuck me his quote got me torqued. If I create a thing, it's fucking mine. I can go further and register for a trademark, but the copyright is mine. If I so much as take a pic of a mushroom on my phone, that pic is copyrighted instantly and without question.

haven't gone through the trouble of registering copyrights with the government or with copyright policing services,"

This is country specific, of course. For example, in Australia the act of committing a work to media of any form is enough to register and assert copyright for that work.

So as an Australian resident I am quite within my rights to assert the following immediately, with the legal backing of the Commonwealth of Australia:

This post is copyright ©️ dgriffith. I grant the Fediverse and its users/instances permission to duplicate as necessary as part of the normal mechanisms of participation, all other rights are reserved.

Having gone through my own DMCA slog with a news site using my artwork without permission, having copyright without it being registered is basically useless. I consulted two different lawyers and both of them recommended the same thing, register every work I produce, which is just not feasible.

Took 2 years and multiple self submitted DMCAs before they finally removed my artwork. Lawyers basically told me I couldn't do shit unless I registered my art.

Yep. I pretty much use antisocial media exclusively these days. Smaller, more human oriented and operated, with no "algorithms" to drive perpetual engagement. It's like the internet of almost 30 years ago in all the best ways.

So continue to ignore it like I always have?

Done!