Frequently asked questions about Safe Creative and copyright registration

Some assumptions about copyright registries and Safe Creative are not true, such as that the registration of proof of authorship in a registry is the exclusive competence of the Administration, or that Safe Creative is an expensive registry.

However, the truth is that copyright registries do not grant authorship, in many countries there are not even public administration registries, and Safe Creative offers one of the most affordable ones.

“Safe Creative is expensive because you have to pay a subscription to maintain the registration.”

No, on the contrary. The certificate and proof of registration that you obtain when you register are valid for life, to prove the date and time you registered your declaration of authorship or rights, as well as the identification of the work. They do not expire or lose their validity, regardless of whether or not you remain a Safe Creative user.

In addition to making timely registrations, Safe Creative also offers subscription options, not because it is necessary to contract them in order to maintain the registrations, but because they allow professional users (designers, composers, editors…) or corporate users (publishers, representatives, lawyers…) to make unlimited registrations, providing them with a very economical way to protect their entire production, including sketches and intermediate work phases, or that of all the works of the clients they manage.

“The public registration certificate does prove that you are the author.”

No. Copyright registrations, both public and private, do not grant authorship. Authorship is born when the work is made. No public or private registry guarantees that the person who registers a work is its author.

The registration in a copyright registry is a proof of presumption of authorship and what it guarantees is the identification of the work, either by including a copy or cryptographic fingerprints, as well as the date and time in which the registrant declared his/her rights over it.

Registering a work, before publishing it or “moving” it in distribution or promotion channels is a means of protection against plagiarism and usurpation of authorship, because it provides the best proof of authorship in time.

What happens to the Safe Creative certificate if Safe Creative disappears?

Nothing.

The certificate and proof of authorship are valid on their own because they are technological proofs whose content (cryptographic fingerprints, time stamps and blockchain record) can be expert appraised regardless of whether the company that generated them still exists or not.

The longevity of a technological evidence is not linked to the longevity of the person, organization or company that generated it. A comparative example might be to consider that DNA tests performed by a laboratory lose their validity as evidence if the laboratory goes out of business.

“By registering your work with Safe Creative you grant rights.”

No.

The registration does not imply the transfer of any rights in favor of Safe Creative.

The Safe Creative user can activate or not a page to inform of the registered rights of his work and in the same page activate or not the download of the copy he or she has registered.

This is a service that allows users to show their work if they wish to do so, but in no case does it imply the transfer of this right to Safe Creative.

“The validity of the Safe Creative registry is less than that of a public registry.”

No. Both types of registration are valid presumptive evidence of authorship, and the possible differences between the two are not for a reason of “degree” but of the circumstances in which one or the other may be more appropriate, since they have different proof nature.

Public registries base their veracity (“On this date the registrant claimed to be the author of this work”) on the presumption of veracity that the law of a country grants to its officials. They are statements recorded in public documents: made by officials of the Administration in the exercise of their functions and therefore have presumption of veracity in the legislation of that Administration and in the legislation of the countries that admit their apostille.

Private registries base their veracity (“On this date the registrant affirmed to be the author of this work”) on the soundness of the technology used to constitute the evidence that allows the identification of the work, the statement of authorship of the registrant and the date and time in which it is made.

A public registration may be more suitable for local judicial environments or those jurisdictions where it may be apostilleable as per se, while a private record confirms its validity by means of a technical expertise.

A private registration may be more suitable as expert evidence, which is therefore admissible in any country and environment, both public (countries without procedures for the validation of public records of other administrations) and private (arbitration criteria of youtube, amazon, etc.).

“Safe Creative is Free”

No. In Safe Creative you can perform the free registration of up to 20 works with open licenses. It is a service to offer registration protection to non-professional creatives. Creatives whose needs exceed the registration of more than 20 works or the reservation of all rights can register their works by paying for each registration punctually or unlimitedly by hiring a subscription.

“Safe Creative cannot be a good registry, because it is a company.”

This is an opinion that we sometimes find in social networks. We honestly do not understand it nor do we share it.

It is precisely the other way around: our raison d’être is to offer the best registry service.

The purpose of our work is to facilitate, enhance creativity and protect authors’ rights. Thanks to the fact that we do it well, we generate the economic return that allows us to do it, but logically it is the consequence that allows us to function, not the purpose of our company.

“The Safe Creative certificate is not irrefutable or unquestionable.”

This statement is misleading because there are two aspects that can be questioned in a copyright registry:

• The soundness of the registration.
• The veracity of what the registration says.

What Safe Creative as a copyright registry must and does guarantee is the first one.

The solidity of a registration is unquestionable if it is not possible to modify its content or its registration date.

The content of the registration consists of a copy of the work and/or the descriptive elements or of the creative process provided by the registrant for its identification and to give solidity to its declaration of rights.

In the case of Safe Creative, the solidity of the integrity of the content and date of the registration is beyond any reasonable doubt due to the redundant application of cryptographic technology. Three fingerprints are extracted from the content to identify forensically what has been registered. Even in the unlikely event that one of the three algorithms used could be compromised in the future by a vulnerability in its formulation, the discordance it would produce with the others would maintain the guarantee of integrity.

The veracity of the registration date is also beyond any reasonable doubt since there are two time stamps applied to the cryptographic fingerprints, so that the need for concordance of both stamps also rules out an improbable future vulnerability in one of them.

Additionally Safe Creative records daily in blockchain a cryptographic fingerprint of the registrations made on each date, which adds another redundant check of the content and dates of the registrations.

This technological process, employed by Safe Creative, leaves the solidity of the registrations beyond any doubt.

This solidity is what is needed by the person who wants to obtain a solid proof of the paternity of his/her work, proving that no one else had it before him/her, or even sketches or drafts of the creative process followed for its creation.

So this is the guarantee that we offer in Safe Creative to the authors.

Of course if a person uses a copyright registry (Safe Creative or any other) to register works that are not original or do not have the values of creativity protected by copyright, the content they have registered or the manifestations of rights they have declared may be questioned, but what is questioned in that case is the creativity or originality of the work, not the soundness of the registration. The originality and veracity of the declared rights cannot and should not be decided by a registry, but by the competent judicial or arbitration body.

“You need to prove that your Safe Creative certificate is not a fake.”

The authenticity of Safe Creative certificates and proofs of registration is proved by the qualified electronic signature they incorporate.

But in any case it is not necessary to check if the technological proof presented by the author has been made by Safe Creative or another technological company for it to be valid, since its validity is not based on the “authority” or presumption of veracity of who has made it, as it happens with a public registry, but on the technological veracity demonstrated by its examination as to the content and the date of registration.

“Safe Creative does not evaluate the content you register.”

Right, it doesn’t.

Copyright registries do not generate rights, but solid evidence as to the content and date of registration.

In cases of controversy, the judgment of the originality, creativity of the work and the veracity of the registered manifestation is not the one that could determine a registration, but the competent judges or arbitrators.

For this reason, the establishment of filters in the registration process, such as regulating that the work be identified in a certain way (for example: allowing only sheet music and not files in electronic formats, or bound copies, etc.) or applying criteria for the evaluation of the registration. ) or applying criteria of evaluation by the registrar as to originality or creative stature, entails an administrative “friction” that limits the author’s criteria for the provision of the proof of authorship he/she wishes to constitute or the type of work he/she is creating (e.g., the regulations of some registries do not contemplate: avatars, virtual designs, etc.).

For this reason Safe Creative as a copyright registry should not evaluate, and does not evaluate the registered content.