Sealed

Simple Media Ownership, Copyright, and License Protection Utility - MIT License

Sealed is an open-source utility that employs a novel process to protect original creator or copyright holder media. Sealed 1.x was initially built for IMAGE(S) and VIDEO(S), Sealed 2.x include TEXT(S) via .PDFs, Sealed 3.x will add AUDIO(S). The goal is to help protect original content creators and copyright holders from the growing incursions on their art, that may be proven manually, automatically, or legally in any process the copyright holder may engage in. Sealed is open-source and offers no accountability or liability for your use of this code or service.

The process provides a proof-based model of ownership that is resistant to AI scrapping, GPT refactoring, decryption, or other processes that may use or alter source images (e.g., outpainting) and deliberate theft of copyright. The code for sealed is open-source, under the MIT License, and may be included in as many applets, applications, and services as possible with attribution and a link to this repository.

Process:

Sealed invokes a process where media can be measured, cropped, shared, much like "edges" on paintings used for anti-forgery and insurance process. Standard hash-codes are generated to text and .json files to be secured personally, or on a service like IPFS or blockchain or redis or any preferred secured store.

1. Copyright IMAGE(S), VIDEO(S) or TEXT(S) are uploaded to Sealed.ch OR local terminal application OR self-directed use of the open-source code - https://github.com/ibinary/sealed integrated for custom solutions. AUDIO(S) will be part of Sealed 3.x.
2. IMAGE(S) is HASHED to document or fingerprint the original.
3. IMAGE(S) is randomly cropped from 3 to 11 pixels depending on IMAGE(S) size, producing a separate file of frames or "edges."
4. Post crop IMAGE(S) (3) are HASHED.
5. Post crop EDGE(S) (3) are HASHED.
6. .ZIP file is produced with: original IMAGE(S), cropped IMAGE(S), edges IMAGE(S) and HASH in .TXT and .JSON formats.
7. Post crop original "share" IMAGE(S) are available for immediate distribution.
8. VIDEO(S) follow the IMAGE(S) path after pre-processing to reduce the VIDEO(S) to a single XOR frame (IMAGE).
9. TEXT(S) follow the IMAGE(S) path after pre-processing to reduce the .PDF TEXT(S) to a single XOR frame (IMAGE)
10. Option to include QR Code (7) to reference contact, URL, and other information for sharing.

Post Process:

1. If a post-process, shared copyright IMAGE(S), VIDEO(S) or TEXT(S) is repurposed, the original copyright owner has a documented file (1…8+) to confirm ownership of original copyright material in absolute terms.
2. Post-process .ZIP contains .txt and .json files that can be stored locally, or imported into a database archive or monitoring tool.

Post Release 3.x:

1. Expansion of process is possible with secure store or public share (e.g., IPFS) of post process media.
2. Expansion of secure store to a distributed blockchain like store for immediate image compare, registration, certification.
3. Expansion of media types to AUDIO(S) in Sealed 3.x.
4. Legal precedent to verify the efficacy of Sealed by a copyright holder.

Dependencies:

Linux: Install these tools on most Linux distributions using the package manager.

Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions, use apt: sudo apt update sudo apt install ffmpeg poppler-utils

Fedora, CentOS, or other Red Hat-based distributions, use dnf or yum: sudo dnf install ffmpeg poppler-utils

macOS: Use Homebrew package manager to install these tools. Install Homebrew: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)" Then, install ffmpeg and poppler with these commands: brew install ffmpeg brew install poppler

History:

The idea for sealed was prompted by a chance conversation at Musée d'Orsay - https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en in 2010. I asked about the insurance process for paintings in the gallery, and learned about scanning or photographing "edges" as a prime defense against forgery. As the content industry has changed with the move from analog to digital (no (print) negatives) and more recently scrapped for use in corpus for AI used in GPT, a need has grown to have a simple, secure, open-source method to secure copyright.

"The Son of Man" (French: Le fils de l'homme) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man - is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte was chosen for Sealed.ch homepage, as a reflection of the use of this process in the popular 1999 movie "The Thomas Crown Affair" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thomas_Crown_Affair_(1999_film).

Contact:

We hope others can leverage this process, code into their products, services and applications to ensure protection for creators and copyright holders, who are appreciated for their work, but often not respected in terms of attribution or compensation. If you have any suggestions, enhancements, updates, forks, all are warmly welcomed at sealed-ch@pm.me

Jake Kitchen - jakekitchen@proton.me / Ken Nickerson - kenn@ibinary.com Sealed was privately funded by iBinary LLC. Follow Sealed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sealedch