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Data Supplier Handbook

Why Participate in CommonsDB

CommonsDB is a registry for metadata and rights information regarding public domain and openly licensed digital assets. It enables organizations to publish verifiable declarations about the copyright status of their collections. These declarations are linked to the assets via International Standard Content Code (ISCC) fingerprints – content-derived identifiers that can be generated directly from the media files. Registry data is publicly accessible via the CommonsDB APIs and Explorer. By storing signed declarations that bind rights information to an ISCC, CommonsDB ensures that copyright data remains discoverable even if the original metadata is stripped from the file.

CommonsDB is designed specifically for cultural heritage institutions that steward public domain or openly licensed collections. By actively contributing your data to the registry, you help build a more transparent, reliable, and interoperable digital ecosystem.

Participating as a Data Supplier allows your organization to safeguard the provenance and integrity of your digitized collections through:

  • Persistent Traceability: Rights information is easily lost when digital assets are downloaded, modified, and shared across the web. CommonsDB creates a permanent, machine-readable connection between your assets and their rights information that survives file sharing and metadata stripping.
  • Greater Legal Certainty for End Users: By providing academic researchers, educators, creators, and AI developers with cryptographically signed proof of an asset's license status, you encourage the confident, legally compliant reuse of your collections.
  • Authoritative Representation: Ensure that your institution remains the verified source of truth for the copyright status of your collections, even as those digital files circulate independently online.