I heard a long time ago that you could protect a copywrite by printing out the original and sending it to yourself through the mail. You want a clear postmark date on it and leave the envelope sealed so that if you ever go to court you can prove when you made the original. Is this true or a bunch of hogwash
A court would have to be satisfied that the item really was posted on such-and-such date, and that it was sealed on or before that date, and that it could not have been opened and re-sealed after that date. My experience with this is from France, where standard mail can easily be 'faked' but registered mail is taken very seriously (difficult to fake, but that's no guarantee of a favourable court ruling). I would not rely on this alone if the work is very important to you. If your work is labour of love, your magnum opus, a blockbuster screenplay, etc, consider lodging a copy with the US Library of Congress (I've never set foot in the country, but they have my work on record, and I have hard-copy receipt). Not expensive. I think they accept work on CD, but we now know that CDs do not 'last forever.' If you need protection for decades, lodge a paper hard copy. If the work involves another party --advertising copy etc-- you'll need professional legal advice.
The "poor man's copyright" as this is called may have once been an option but from everything I've read in US law it has no legal standing. It's simply too easy to send yourself an unsealed envelope and then at a later date put the document in question inside. I am not a lawyer, just someone who has done a lot of research on the topic. This is an issue where most countries agree that first publication sets copyright to the initial publisher. Where it gets tricky is online where a theft can occur by a second site that can get indexed faster and appear to have published first. The only "true" protection is to register prior to publication. Except if you happen to live in Afghanistan which I think is the only country in the world that offers no copyright protection whatsoever.
There is no formal registration scheme backed by any national agency here in the UK. There is a commercial organisation that will add your registration to their register for a fee, but what level of legal protection that may or may not provide, given that it is a commercial transaction, is open to interpretation.
I believe this is true, I have been told that you can also send copies to your lawyer, asking them to no open them until needed, etc, a lawyer or 2 or 3 or 4, all with the same story in court will go a long way. the law is clear, first person to create the work is the owner, if you have this proof, even if its 'social' is enough to satisfy the 'reasonable man' test. Esp. if you have more then one 'proof' ie mailing to a few lawyers who are, in theory, 'officers of the court' - most lawyers will not charge for this if they do work for you on other matters, could also be someone with good history or profile. Best of success!