Project Sentinel
Register it. Seal the evidence. Put every possible copy in front of a person. The decision stays with the rights holder.
Evidence seal SHA-256
Human review 13 checks
Owner decision Yours
Evidence, not accusation
Sentinel is a creator-rights platform for evidence and decisions. It registers original work, seals a private record, compares possible copies signal by signal, and routes every case through human review to the rights holder, who decides what happens next.
How Sentinel worksHow a case moves
Seven stages, and three of them are held by people that no score can skip. Most leads are expected to stop early. That is the design.
Walk through each stageUpload the original and group it into catalogs. Declare the accounts and licences already allowed to use it, so reuse you allow never becomes a lead.
CreatorRegistered work · version 1
File hash, timestamps and provenance are sealed. The database refuses any edit or deletion; a new file becomes a new version with its own seal.
SentinelEvidence seal · SHA-256
Discovery runs under a fail-closed source policy, and signed-in scouts submit public URLs. Duplicate, conflict and fraud checks run before anyone reviews.
Discovery or scoutLead · public URL only
Picture, motion and sound are scored separately. A video match needs three consecutive aligned frames, never one similar still.
Matching engineAI-detected match
A reviewer works a 13-point checklist and advances, rejects, or asks for more evidence. Reward amounts are hidden from them.
Named reviewerHuman-validated lead
A neutral private notice, then the owner's call: authorized, licensed, unknown or unauthorized. Saying a use was authorized is an accurate outcome.
Verified ownerOwner decision
If a funded campaign covers the case, the first valid scout may be rewarded, but only after a separate person approves the payout.
Bounty administratorAward · approved separately
This record documents file identity, timestamps, provenance, and ownership claims. It is not a U.S. Copyright Office registration or a legal determination of ownership.
Found a copy of someone's work?
Scouts report a public URL. Only the first valid report can qualify for a bounty.
The product, as built
A live evidence record from the working prototype: the original beside the suspected copy, each signal scored on its own, and only the records that actually exist.
Open the full recordTechnical signalsTemporal consistency met
Record ladderSeparate records, separate people
Four records, never blurred
Four kinds of evidence, kept in separate records made by different parties. Public language follows the record that actually exists, and nothing higher.
A similarity signal and a candidate transformation. It opens a review. It is not a conclusion.
A named reviewer completed all 13 checks and advanced the case.
The verified owner said this specific use was not authorized. It is the standard bounty trigger.
Exists only when a court or other authoritative process has ruled on that case. Rare, and never assumed. On file in this instance: 0.
Signals, not verdicts
The matcher is the evidence engine inside the workflow, not the product. It shows its work and prefers a missed copy over a false accusation.
Scout bounties
A creator can fund a campaign for one work or a catalog, or a case can draw on the public-interest pool. A platform fee is disclosed before anyone funds. Most reports are expected to end without a payment.
A reviewer validated the scout's lead. Smaller, and only when the campaign offers it.
RequiresA reviewer's advance decision on that case
The verified owner confirmed that this specific use was not authorized.
RequiresThe owner's own confirmation
The owner recorded an outcome such as attribution, a licence, or a removal request.
RequiresA standard award plus an owner-confirmed resolution
Computing an award is arithmetic. Approving it is a person. A bounty administrator who is not the scout approves each payout once, with an idempotency key. Holds, clawbacks and appeals are built in. In this demonstration every payment is simulated.
Plain language
Rights work goes wrong when a tool sounds more certain than it is. These three statements appear in the product wherever they apply.
It documents file identity, timestamps, provenance and ownership claims. Sentinel never files with the U.S. Copyright Office and never collects the government fee. Its registration checklist points creators to copyright.gov.
Similar media can come from a licence, shared stock footage, commentary or coincidence. That is why a person reviews every match and the rights holder states what was authorized.
It records evidence and decisions. It is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Only a court or other authoritative process can decide infringement.
A clearer path to a decision
Follow a case through both sides of the workflow, from a sealed original to the owner's decision.
