Reduced access might be part of the negotiation. Departments, committees, or advisors may still require a paper bound version to be kept somewhere. Many countries have laws that protect the rights of an individual to own property. There are also international treaties and conventions protecting these rights. Copyright registration is a legal process of submitting a copy of your work to the government, and filing your ownership for the public records.
Registration is necessary before filing an infringement suit.
The law applies to both published and unpublished work, to registered and unregistered work. The protection is there for works that display the copyright notice or symbol and for those that do not. If it is made early, then statutory damages and attorney's fees are available to the copyright owner in case of an infringement. If registration is made just prior to an infringement lawsuit, only actual damages and profits can be recovered. United States copyright protection laws have changed over the years.