Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

Copyrights are automatically bestowed upon creation of a work of art. However to be enforced in the USA you need to register your copyright, since US District Courts have exclusive original jurisdiction over copyright infringement actions and they will not enforce your copyright without a registration or at least an application for registration. Copyright registrations are obtained from the Copyright Office, which is a part of the Library of Congress. So, knowing that, the answer is that you have a lot of expense in front of you before you can force a removal of the story from an online bulletin board. Hence, the "bite me" response. The board owner apparently thinks you won't go to that trouble and expense, and is probably right. Technically you have the legal right to do all of that and force removal, but it is sufficiently expensive that you would be foolish to do it unless it is really that important to you, which I doubt. If it is that important, and you are ready to spend, spend, spend, call me and I can set the lawsuit in motion. I won't hold my breath waiting for your call!!