FAQ

An open protocol for asking permission before AI generates something protected — a person's likeness or voice, a character, a brand, a work. The AI service asks the registry that speaks for it; the registry answers with a signed yes or no for that one request; the service generates only on a valid yes and keeps the answer as its proof. The first profile covers a person's likeness and voice; profiles for characters, brands and works come next. The whole core fits on one page.

C2PA describes what was generated and by whom. PRE-GEN asks, before the model runs, whether a registry’s records permit it. It checks declared rights and conditions; it does not decide what is lawful. A PRE-GEN assertion can travel inside a C2PA manifest.

No. It works only where providers integrate it. It cannot stop systems that never ask, local models or services that ignore it. Its value grows with the number of providers that ask.

That this registry gave this answer to this exact request, at that time, and that nobody has changed it since. It does not prove that the output was lawful, that every condition was met, or that nothing was generated without asking. A PG code written into a file proves nothing on its own; only a signature that checks out against the registry directory does.

Personal use of a registered subject that nothing prohibits: no opt-out, no protection for minors, no fixed denial applies. It grants no licence and gives no right to publish commercially. It exists so personal use can be reported and counted.

It is checked before any licence. No licence can override it. Registering and opting out are free.

Anyone may run a registry or integrate; the specification is Apache-2.0, and an open reference registry runs a complete registry in two commands. Today one registry operates in production: PRAMPTA. See Registries.

A registry the steward never listed: its signatures are refused everywhere, because verification accepts a registry only for the prefix the signed directory gives it. A copy of a real registry with its own key: refused too. A listed registry that claims a person it cannot prove: a claim the person confirmed on their own official channel silences it; if nobody confirmed anything and two registries disagree, generation freezes. Complaints are answered within seven days, the steward can mark the false claim in the directory, and a registry that keeps doing it is revoked — verifiers learn of a revocation when they next load a current directory — at least daily — and nothing it ever signed authorizes anything again. A licence from someone without the rights gives no rights at law.

No. A code is just text. What counts is the signed proof that travels with the output (proof): the registry's yes, the provider's report naming the exact file, and the registry's acknowledgement. A proof copied onto another video points to a different file; an edited report no longer matches what the registry acknowledged.

Not whoever came first — whoever the person confirmed. A claim confirmed on the person's own official channel silences unconfirmed ones, and a refusal of the person in any of their registries holds in all of them. A matching name is never evidence (identity).

Not under the likeness profile. Sexual or adult categories need the person's own key on the licence, a verified identity, and a licence that names those categories. The registry cannot sign for them.

No. A provider and a registry exchange requests and answers directly, free. Services that make it easier are optional, and anyone may offer them.

The signed refusal and the audit chain show that the provider was told no, by whom, when and under which rules. PRE-GEN gives courts and platforms something they can verify; it does not enforce.

The protocol, schemas, vectors, verification libraries and the reference registry are free. Registries set their own terms for credentials; sandboxes are free.

Every answer names the key it was signed with. Registries keep old public keys in their key set so past answers stay verifiable; the directory keeps every key a registry ever used.