hand-id.org · Standards & Governance

A Manifesto for Creator
Identification and Protection

PJ
Paul Jessop HAND Advisor · Former CTO, IFPI & RIAA
First published — 20 November 2023 Ver. 1.0
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Those involved in the creation and interpretation of artistic works such as literature, music, dance, movies and television should have the right:
01
To be unambiguously identified through machine readable codes that can be associated with their endeavours.
02
To have their name and an unambiguous code associated with their endeavours when they elect to require this.
03
For this association to be a technically robust binding so that it is hard to remove the association.
04
To be able to license, or refuse to license, their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL — including their vocal timbre and style) for the creation of digital replicas.
05
To have their name and unambiguous code robustly associated (when they require it) with digital replicas in a way that makes it clear that the replica uses the NIL of the creator but does not capture the creator themselves.
06
To have an unambiguous code associated (when they require it) with each distinct authorised digital replica so that compliance with the relevant licence can be ascertained.
07
To be protected from digital replicas that assert or imply that they capture the creator themselves.
08
To be protected from digital replicas that are not in compliance with the licence conditions applicable to the identity of the relevant replica.
09
To be protected from captures and digital replicas that are associated with names or codes that are incorrect, whether or not this is done in pursuit of gain by the party involved.
Context & Prior Art

Some of these rights are close to rights that already exist in (for instance) implementations of the WIPO treaty protections for Rights Management Information (RMI) or implementations of moral rights. However, these existing rights are imperfectly implemented globally and are heavily circumscribed by (for instance in the case of the protection of RMI, termed Copyright Management Information, in the DMCA) which effectively requires an act to “induce, enable, facilitate, or conceal an infringement of any right.”

PJ
Paul Jessop
HAND Advisor · County Analytics Ltd.

Paul Jessop is an independent consultant who provides advice through his company, County Analytics Ltd. in the UK. After a career in engineering and strategy with British Telecom, Paul was for 13 years CTO at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and subsequently at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Since 2016, he has been a technology advisor to the DOI Foundation and is a current advisor and equity holder in HAND.

Paul is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He is a Member of the Audio Engineering Society. He obtained a degree in Engineering and Computer Science at Cambridge and a post-graduate Diploma in Management Studies at Oxford.

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Former CTO, IFPI Former CTO, RIAA ISNI Co-Author (ISO 27729) DDEX Founder Cambridge Engineering

The infrastructure this Manifesto calls for.
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HAND is the first persistent, globally resolvable identifier for creators, athletes, and every notable public figure in the Cultural Industries — built on the DOI® Foundation, governed by a nonprofit, structured so that no platform, studio, or league can ever capture it.

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