I see various copyright notices on all kinds of materials. Does that mean that those materials have been registered or have some special protection?

Copyright exists from the moment a work is created, and no notice is required. A notice doesn't mean that a work has been registered, and doesn't have any magical effect. But a notice can create certain presumptions as to the ownership of the copyright when it appears in connection with a work.

A copyright notice is usually expressed with the symbol ©. That is the symbol adopted by the Universal Copyright Convention for use on copyrighted materials.

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