CreativeWork.info
A Registry for Creative Works, Instances & Derivatives
Christopher Allen
ChristopherA@LifeWithAlacrity.com
@ChristopherA
The Problem
-
Creative works are trees
- iterative versions over time (ala git)
- multiple parallel versions
-
lossless instances
- .svg vs .pdf, .flac vs .alc
- lossy instances
- .png vs .jpg, .m4a vs mp3
-
lossless instances
- forks and derivatives
- related works
- sketches, notes
- collective works (Star Wars Universe)
The Problem
-
Creative Attribution is hard
- creative contributions
- editorial contributions
- ownership, licenses
- remix, embedded works
- when created
-
Metadata is hard
- creator metadata
- curator metadata
- user metadata
- changes over time
Current best practice is DOI
- Advantages
- persistent
- dns-like distributed
- Disadvantages
- centralized registry
- names distributed, not data
- expensive ($1 per work)
- restricted access (academics mostly)
Hashes are not good enough
- Good for unique instances, but not for
- iterations over time
- parallel versions
- forks
- derivatives
- related works
- metadata from multiple sources
- owner, curator, user
A solution
- Register a hardened BIP32 public key branch on the blockchain
- starting m/23/0/0'/0
- master/branch/account/workid/instanceid
- xpub6C5prE6HmoF6diNt2BQRPDakx3tXFr6…
- master/branch/account/workid/instanceid
- children keys are used to sign instances
- public key for instance 1 of work
- wJyoJ6rC4o7uti4LJKMQYpLoQGrFipLjPc
- hash and signature of work is registered on the blockchain
- public key for instance 1 of work
- starting m/23/0/0'/0
Looking up
- user hashes instance
- looks up hash, gets a number of hash+signatures
- looks up hash+signatures and gets metadata
- source may be author, curator, or user
- metadata also returns creative work id
- provably associated with signature because of bip32
- proof of existence for both instances
and creative works - can look up other instances by deriving bip32 key and looking up other instances
- can look up other metadata by searching hashes
Key Points
- just hashing creative works isn't good enough
- even hashing fingerprints doesn't connect many kinds derivatives and sources
- metadata is not created only by owners
- curator and user metadata may sometimes be more reliable
- lets find a single method that works for lots of kinds of formats
- images, movies, pdfs, audio, etc.
- this bip32 branch signatures technique is interesting
- may be useful for other things, like identity or auth
For more information
Christopher Allen
ChristopherA@LifeWithAlacrity.com
@ChristopherA
Free PDF Credits App for Mac:
http://www.PDFCredits.com
Creative Work Info
By christophera
Creative Work Info
- 1,367