With regards to IP protection. I only know the one on the bottom right corner is copyleft.

First one on the top left is the CC logo for Attribution (anyone can take your work provided they provide a source... which is the creator), the second one is the CC logo for no derivatives (others can share your work but they can't build upon it), the third one is non-commercial (people can do what they want with your work as long as it's for non commerical purposes), and the last one is copyleft.
More info here, BTW.

By: - the author / maker or something.
/$ - not to be traded for money.
= - free to distribute probably.
Only guessing.

Those are Creative Commons marking; the BY: is attribution (you need to say who the original author was), the crossed dollar is non-commercial (you can't ask for money for the original or any derivatives and the equal should be share-alike (you can't modify the license of your work, it has to be the same as the one it's based on).

Awesome, thanks all.

tell Merrill to swing away