Yes, poor people are being screwed over. You lose a whole set of available remedies in court if you don't register "timely". It's about as optional as health in

Yes, poor people are being screwed over. You lose a whole set of available remedies in court if you don't register "timely". It's about as optional as health insurance. You're not forced to do it, but if anything goes wrong, you'll dearly regret your decision. Also, she should have been suing to declare the painting a derived work of her photo. Drawing it was clearly transformative, so it's not a pure copyright infringement. But as a derived work, she would be entitled to receive revenue share from the painter. It's just that for that whole derived work thing to work, her photo needs to be registered first.