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
  • 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…
  • 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

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

 

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