NY Times: “Payoff Over a Web Singing Sensation Is Elusive“:

FremantleMedia Enterprises, a production company that owns the international digital rights to the talent show, hastily uploaded video clips to YouTube in the wake of Ms. Boyle’s debut, but the clips do not appear to be generating any advertising revenue for the company. The most popular videos of Ms. Boyle were not the official versions but rather copies of the TV show posted by individual users.
The case reflects the inability of big media companies to maximize profit from supersize Internet audiences that seem to come from nowhere. In essence, the complexities of TV production are curbing the Web possibilities. “Britain’s Got Talent” is produced jointly by three companies and distributed in Britain by a fourth, ITV, making it difficult to ascertain which of the companies can claim a video as its own.

WaPo: © 2009? Wishful Thinking, Perhaps, as Backlog Mounts:

The problem has tripled the processing time for a copyright from six to 18 months, and delays are expected to get worse in coming months. The library’s inspector general has warned that the backlog threatens the integrity of the U.S. copyright system.
The irony is that the slowdown stems from a new $52 million electronic process that is supposed to speed the way writers and others register their literary, musical or visual work.

UPDATE: 43(B)log comments on the article.

Here is a post from December 30, 2006 entitled Emily the Rip-Off.:

Emily the Strange is fictional character whose introverted and disdainful personality has made her something of a countercultural icon (and a great way to sell marketable products to the trendy). Her franchise has churned out a lot of merchandise (clothes, toys, books, etc.)
But the character itself is almost an exact copy of another (less desperately nonconformist) character, Rosamond, from the children’s book series “Nate the Great”.

Here, a writer at “You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice” recognizes the similarity.
Here, the Laughing Squid summarizes reader comments on the similarities and quotes from the creator of Rosamond.
Here is the tex of the declaratory judgement action brought by the creator of Emily.