Verifiable content registries

An ISCC code is a content-derived identifier and lightweight fingerprint of the digital media asset. Anyone with access to the digital media file can generate the ISCC from the asset itself. Using ISCC does not require a designated registration authority such as a copyright office to issue an identifier and authoritatively assign the identifier to metadata or a digital referent.

It could be argued that ISCC codes are “owned by the content”, rather than being owned by any specific creator, rightsholder, registry, or user.

For various reasons anyone can have a legitimate interest to publish content codes to registries, be it on the Internet or on blockchains. Creative individuals, media organisations or other rightsholders may publicly register ISCCs to publish assertions, bind metadata, rights management information, or other claims to the identifier. Other declarants may simply want to prove that they had access to a specific file at a given point in time by generating and publishing an ISCC code, without claiming any rights to the content or suggesting that they are the original creator.

Open and public, verifiable registries can serve as ledgers for content declarations. They provide links to metadata without the need for centralised platforms, repositories, registration authorities or other gatekeepers.