Why do you have to pay for a copyright?

Go straight to the source! www.copyright.gov/

Also once something is in print, that states the content is copywritten your I p is copywritten.

What you are paying for is the legal right to contest and defend and collect on your ownership of the work you had copyrighted. Your copyright protects you for several years from any unauthorized reproduction or retransmission of your work, and once the work has been determined to indeed be yours, the question of ownership will stand up in any domestic court in the U.S., thereby allowing you to collect payment and/or royalties on any unauthorized sales of your work. A copyright will also allow you to license your work, for example, to a manufacturer who will then manufacture and distribute your work, allowing you to receive proper agreed-upon payment for sales of said work.