Originally Posted by pornlaw

You cannot even file a federal copyright infringement case without the actual registration from the Copyright Office. It must be attached to your compliant. Without it you cant get into federal court. The advantage is statutory damages vs. actual damages.

DMCA is not the same, but if the site doesnt respond to your requests your next step is to file in federal court. At that point, it will take anywhere from 8 weeks to 16 weeks to get your registration back from the US Copyright Office. You can request a quick turnaround registration but that will cost over $600 per registration as opposed to around $40.

Thus for the time and effort involved it doesnt make sense not to file as soon as the content is created. Waiting actually puts you at a severe disadvantage.