did not actually file copyrights on their art with the U.S. Copyright Office.
The way they've worded this isn't really a sufficient explanation of how this works. An artist is automatically granted copyright upon the creation of a work, so it's not that they don't have the right to protect their work. It's just that, without registration, you cannot file a lawsuit to protect your work.
Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work.
https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
However, if it's within 5 years of initial publication, they can still be granted a formal registered copyright and bring the complaint again.
It's a markup language. In the simplest explanation, a programming language describes a process (what does the thing do) while a markup language describes a structure (how is the thing supposed to be displayed). There's more to it than that, but someone else can get into deeper if they want, it's beyond me lol