Wait what do you mean by "file a copyright"? I have never heard of this, all explanations of copyright I have heard say that you automatically own the copyright to the things you make; and that "all rights are reserved" by default unless you give up on them through granting a license. Is this no longer the case? Why is this now suddenly different? When did it change?

Briefly, there is default copyright and registered copyright. Registering works grants stronger protections (i.e. bigger fines if broken).

I hear this a lot! What's suddenly different for the web is the volume of scraping. And that fact that the sum of that scraping is building companies with trillion dollar valuations.

There are tens of millions of registered copyrights in the US, nearly every published book, music, artwork, many magazines and major websites. Here's the official link, you can search the registry and there is a ton of info: https://www.copyright.gov/registration/