Copyright and Art Theft

Over these past couple years I have seen an increase in art theft scenarios. Or perhaps my increasing involvement in the Deviantart community has opened my eyes to it. Not only Deviantart, but on blogs and facebooks. Artists are at the mercy of the open internet and finding themselves in complex legal situations.
"Who has the upper hand on who? Is it worth fighting back if a large clothing company from overseas has just mass produced my design, and I frankly do not have the money to defend myself?"

More often, I see small victories. More often, I see updates such as the companies have halted production of said design and works with the artists to come to some sort of agreement. But I'm very aware there are a lot of sad stories out there and unfair accounts.

I do believe most artists eschew the documented and official copyright process due to it's complexity. Here are some links I've dug up, in case people would like to take a look at the copyright process explained in simple terms:

Tips to Best Copyright & Protect Your Artwork: www.finearttips.com/2011/02/ti…

Taking the Mystery Out Of Copyright, Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/teachers/copyright…

How to File Your Copyrights and Keep Track of Them: mariabrophy.com/business-of-ar…
Includes How to File Copyright for Multiple Images ^ aka a body of work for a single year.