(ET) Copyright

A while back I created some software "drivers" and went thru the process of copyright. I am quite sure that there is an "implied' immediate copyright by virtue of publication, without notice. In other words,even if it doesn't say "Copyright" on it it still has copyright protection (without an application to the government). Since nit picking arguments about the date of first publication aren't relevent to this publication, I'd have to say that GE has a pretty good lock on a copyright for the manual, even if not so indicated (and my copy of the owners manual has no date, "Copyright" notice or symbols, library of congress Id, etc.)