Copyright is a Pillar of Provenance

Copyright isn’t just a legal mechanism—it’s also a system of traceability. When a piece of content is protected by copyright:

• Its origin is clear (who created it, when, and under what rights).

• Its chain of custody can often be reconstructed (via licenses, credits, metadata, etc.).

This structure underpins any authenticity framework—because you can’t verify something’s authenticity unless you know where it came from.

When Copyright is Undermined…

If we allow copyrighted works to be scraped, used without consent, or blurred into AI-generated content:

• We erode the incentive to maintain authorship records.

• We weaken the legal and moral weight of attribution.

• Over time, creators may stop embedding identifying data (like metadata or content credentials), knowing it will be stripped, ignored, or co-opted.

This results in an ecosystem where fewer assets can be reliably traced, making any authenticity solution (C2PA, watermarking, etc.) far less effective.

Authenticity Relies on Respect for Rights

Authenticity frameworks like C2PA are built on the assumption that:

• Creators have rights,

• These rights are respected, and

• Their metadata and credentials are preserved and trusted.

But if copyright is no longer enforced, then:

• Anyone can claim anything.

• Real authorship becomes harder to distinguish from fakery.

• The whole premise of “authentic content” becomes moot, because we’ve removed the foundation that supports it: rightful ownership.

In Short

When we erode copyright, we’re not just harming creators—we’re compromising the very systems that allow us to distinguish real from fake, origin from manipulation. We dismantle the very scaffolding that upholds truth in media. We weaken our ability to verify content, to defend against deepfakes and manipulated stories, and to maintain public trust.

The fight for copyright is, increasingly, a fight for authenticity—and with it,  trust in the provenance of content.

 

~