Before an AI system generates something protected — a person's likeness or voice, a character, a brand, a work — it asks the registry that speaks for it. The registry signs its answer, and anyone can check it later.
The core works the same for any protected subject. Each kind of subject gets a profile that says what may be asked and what can never be overridden: the first, likeness/1, covers a person's likeness and voice; profiles for characters, brands and works come next.
How it works
1
Ask
The AI service asks the registry before it generates.
2
Signed answer
The registry says yes, no or not yet — and signs it, for this request only.
3
Only on yes
The service generates only on a valid yes, and keeps the answer as its proof.
Four possible answers
Allow
A licence or the registry's published policy permits this use. The only answer that permits.
Not blocked
Nothing forbids it, and nothing grants it. Not a permission.
Review
The rights holder decides first.
Deny
Refused, with a reason.
The ecosystem in pictures
On a phone, swipe a diagram sideways to see all of it.
Who is who
One standard, many registries. The steward only says which keys may sign for which prefix; registries speak for people; providers ask before they generate; anyone can check the result.
One generation, step by step
The prompt and the output never leave the provider. The registry sees only who asks, for which subject and for what use.
What a registry does
Any organisation that meets the published conditions can run a registry — an agency, a union, an estate, an AI company — on the same rules as the first one.
How trust works
Anyone can print a PG code and anyone can sign. Only a key the steward's directory lists for that prefix makes an answer count.
One person, several registries
Who came first never decides — who proved it does. An impostor can at most freeze a person who never confirmed anything; it can never permit.
Floors only go up
A person's refusal is checked before any licence. No licence, extension or registry policy can turn it into a permission.
Proof travels with the output
A PG code written on a video proves nothing. A copied proof points to another file; an edited report no longer matches what the registry signed. The platform still decides what to do.
Open to everyone
Anyone can run a registry or build it into an AI service, free, under Apache-2.0 — directly, with no intermediary. The whole core fits on one page. It works only where AI services choose to ask, and a signed answer shows what the registry said — not that a use is lawful.
