Experimental Adobe tool offers protection to artists' works anywhere.
Even if someone has printed it on a T-shirt.
One of Adobe's most notable initiatives this year has the potential to combat misinformation and ensure that artists receive the recognition they deserve for their work, regardless of where it appears, whether online or in physical media. During the Sneaks section at Adobe Max, the "Know How Project" was showcased, a tool in development that can link ownership of an image or video on any online platform, as well as across a variety of real-world surfaces such as posters, cups, and textiles.
The Know How Project is based on Adobe's Content Credentials technology, which applies a digital label to track where content has been published, who its owner is, and whether it has been manipulated. Once an image or video has Content Credentials, the tool allows creators to establish ownership of their content, even if authentication metadata has been removed. In an early demonstration, it was shown how the Content Credentials information could be visualized in an image simply by scanning it with a camera, even on textured objects like a fabric bag.
An example of how the Know How Project works involves a live feed from a camera scanning an object and, upon identifying that the object has Content Credentials, displaying a "snapshot" that can be clicked to access an informative page.
This development could address many of the frustrations that artists face regarding the protection of their work. It is common for art and designs to be published on platforms like Pinterest and X without crediting the original creator, which limits the benefits of such exposure. While the creative community may try to manually resolve this through comments or notes crediting the original artist, Know How offers an additional level of protection that is harder to bypass for those acting in bad faith.
Moreover, the tool presents other advantages: if a video has been cropped or taken out of context, Know How can retrieve the full video in the state it was originally published. Adobe has mentioned that several local governments have adopted or are considering the adoption of Content Credentials, which could provide additional protection against the use of manipulated videos to spread political misinformation.
While the demonstrations in Adobe's Sneaks do not guarantee that all functionalities will become full-fledged products, the company's recent strong investment in its Content Credentials initiative suggests that some of these features could be implemented in the future. Although it has not been determined when this will happen, showing that the technical possibility already exists is a significant achievement that could reassure creatives concerned about proving ownership of their works.
