We're live — take the free 2-minute Automation Savings Check →
Synthetic Media Investigator logo
S.M.I.
BACK TO SMI VERIFYREGISTRY SEARCH →LICENSE MARKET →
COPYRIGHT REGISTRY · REFERENCE

Licenses & claim tiers, plainly explained.

Every license kind SMI accepts, with its SPDX identifier and canonical text — and what each claim tier does and does not establish. A license declaration on SMI is a statement of terms, never an SMI adjudication of who holds the underlying copyright.

THE THREE CLAIM TIERS
TIER 1 · OWNER-DECLARED
owner_declared
A human on SMI — the owner of the creator profile — declared these terms. SMI has not independently corroborated the declaration. Read it as a declaration, not a certification of copyright ownership.
TIER 2 · DOMAIN-BOUND
domain_bound
Same declaration path as Tier 1, but the declaring creator profile had a domain signature on file at declaration time. Two facts to keep separate: the declarant proved control of that domain; proving domain control does not establish that they hold the underlying copyright.
TIER 3 · MANIFEST-EMBEDDED
manifest_embedded
Extracted from the file's own signed C2PA manifest at upload time. No SMI user asserted this record — it is what the manifest signer embedded at the time of signing. It travels with the file itself.
ACCEPTED LICENSE KINDS
CC0 1.0 Universal · v1.0
Waived — dedicated to the public domain by the declarant.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC0-1.0FULL TEXT
Attribution 4.0 International · v4.0
Reuse permitted with attribution.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC-BY-4.0FULL TEXT
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International · v4.0
Reuse with attribution; derivatives must keep the same terms.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC-BY-SA-4.0FULL TEXT
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International · v4.0
Reuse with attribution — non-commercial only.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC-BY-NC-4.0FULL TEXT
Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International · v4.0
Reuse with attribution — no derivatives.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC-BY-ND-4.0FULL TEXT
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International · v4.0
Non-commercial reuse with attribution; share-alike.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0FULL TEXT
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International · v4.0
Non-commercial reuse with attribution; no derivatives.
CREATIVE COMMONSSPDX: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0FULL TEXT
All Rights Reserved
The declarant reserves all rights; no reuse permitted without permission.
PROPRIETARY
Public Domain
Work is in the public domain (not eligible for copyright).
PUBLIC DOMAINFULL TEXT
Custom Terms
Rights governed by the custom terms text attached to the claim.
CUSTOM
This page is a lookup table, not legal advice. SPDX identifiers follow the SPDX License List; Creative Commons links point at the canonical deeds. For what SMI does with these declarations, read the tier cards above.