Authorship Ledger, explained

What is Authorship Ledger?

Authorship Ledger is a system of record for human authorship. As you create — especially with AI in the loop — it captures the human side of the work (your prompts, decisions, edits, selections, and approvals) in a tamper-evident ledger, then turns that history into a copyright-ready evidence package. In short: you did the work; the Ledger helps you prove it.

Who is it for?

Writers, artists, musicians, designers, and other creators who use AI tools and want a clear, durable record of their own contribution — plus the agents, attorneys, publishers, and estates who may later need to verify that record. It’s built for anyone whose authorship might one day be questioned.

What problem does it solve?

AI has blurred the line between human and machine contribution. Copyright protects human authorship, not raw AI output, so the burden increasingly falls on creators to show what they actually did. Memory and scattered screenshots don’t hold up well. The Ledger creates contemporaneous, verifiable documentation of your creative process as it happens.

If I use AI, can I still own my work?

Often, yes — but it depends on your human contribution. The U.S. Copyright Office has been clear that purely AI-generated material isn’t copyrightable and that a prompt alone doesn’t make you the author. Original human expression — your selection, arrangement, editing, and authored portions — can be protected, and registration requires you to disclose AI-generated content and explain your contribution.

Authorship Ledger is designed to document exactly that contribution. (This is general information, not legal advice.)

What does the Ledger actually record?

Within a recording session it logs the meaningful steps of your process — prompts you write, AI outputs you receive, text you author or edit, media you upload or generate, and the selections and approvals you make — each labeled to show whether it came from you or from a tool. Every entry is timestamped and sealed in sequence.

You don’t have to work inside the platform to build that record. Connect the writing tools you already use — Microsoft Word and Scrivener through the Companion app, and Google Docs directly — and your process is captured automatically as you save.

What makes the record tamper-evident?

Each event is sealed with a cryptographic hash (SHA-256) that includes the hash of the event before it, forming a chain. Changing, inserting, or deleting anything afterward breaks the chain, which is immediately detectable. Anyone can check a record’s integrity on the public verification page — no account required.

What is “anchoring,” and why Bitcoin?

Anchoring proves your record existed at a certain point in time, independently of us. The Ledger anchors entries using OpenTimestamps to the Bitcoin blockchain — a public, widely replicated ledger that no single party controls. That gives you proof of timing that doesn’t depend on trusting Authorship Ledger or any one company. Anchoring is included at no extra cost.

How do you distinguish human work from AI work?

Every contribution is tagged — Human original, AI generated, Human selected, Human edited, and Human approved. This mirrors how copyright analysis looks at a work, separating what a person authored, chose, and shaped from what a tool produced, and it makes your human authorship legible at a glance.

How does the Ledger strengthen the integrity of human authorship?

By keeping the record honest in both directions — it documents what you genuinely contributed, while resisting any overstatement of it. Every step is labeled human or AI and you confirm the label, and that confirmation is itself recorded. The whole chain is tamper-evident and independently time-anchored, so nothing can be quietly back-dated or edited after the fact.

It also guards against the subtlest way an AI-era record can mislead: absorbing pasted material as if it were typed. When a large block of text appears in a single save — the signature of a paste — the Ledger flags it and asks you to say where it came from (your own writing, an AI tool, or another source). So AI-generated or borrowed text can’t silently inflate your apparent contribution; the record reflects what you actually did, which is exactly what makes it credible under scrutiny.

What do I end up with?

Each registered work gets a unique validation number (e.g. AL-XXXX-XXXX) and a public verification page where anyone can confirm the record’s integrity and timing. You can export an evidence package — a structured history of your process — to accompany a copyright application or to hand to an attorney, agent, or court.

Do I have to write inside the app, or can I use Word, Scrivener, or Google Docs?

You don’t have to write inside the app — keep using the writing tool you already know. Three are supported today:

• Microsoft Word and Scrivener — the free Companion app runs quietly on your computer and records each save into your work automatically. Set it up once, then just write.
• Google Docs — nothing to install. Connect your Google account, pick a document, and your edits are captured directly (great on Chromebooks).

Prefer to write in the Ledger itself? The in-app editor works too.

Writing is fully covered — Word, Scrivener, and Google Docs. Connectors for your audio and image apps are on the way, so more of your creative process can be recorded in the tools you already use.

Can I bring in a document I've already started?

Yes. You can import an existing Word document (.docx) into a new work in the app, point the Companion at a document you’ve already started in Word or Scrivener, or link a Google Doc you’re already writing — its current text becomes your starting point, and every save from then on is captured. For a piece that’s already fully finished, see Forensic Reconstruction below.

What's the difference between a Live Project and a Forensic Reconstruction?

A Live Project is witnessed in real time — you press record and the Ledger documents your process as you create, which produces the strongest, most contemporaneous record. A Forensic Reconstruction is for work that’s already finished: you reassemble and document its provenance after the fact from the materials you still have.

I already finished my novel, album, or artwork. Can I still document it?

Yes — that’s what Forensic Reconstruction is for. It won’t be a real-time record, but it lets you build a structured, verifiable account of how an existing work was made. Going forward, starting a Live Project at the outset gives you the strongest possible documentation.

Is this a copyright registration?

No. Authorship Ledger does not register, grant, or certify copyright, and it isn’t a substitute for filing with the U.S. Copyright Office. It produces documentation and evidence of authorship and timing that can support a registration application or a dispute. Registration itself is done through the Copyright Office.

Will a Ledger record hold up in court?

Evidentiary weight and admissibility are always decided by the court or tribunal involved — no tool can promise that outcome. What the Ledger is designed to provide is the kind of evidence adjudicators value: contemporaneous, internally consistent, tamper-evident, and independently verifiable through a public blockchain timestamp rather than only our say-so.

How does this map to the Copyright Office's AI disclosure rules?

Current guidance requires applicants to disclose AI-generated content and briefly describe the human author’s contribution — often framed as the authored portions plus the “selection, coordination, and arrangement” of human and AI material. The Ledger’s tagging and event history are built to make that contribution explicit and easy to describe. (General information, not legal advice.)

Can a third party verify a record without an account?

Yes. Verification is public: an agent, attorney, publisher, or heir can open the verification page for a work’s validation number and independently confirm that the hash chain is intact and when it was anchored — without logging in and without access to the underlying private materials.

Can teachers or schools use this?

Yes — there’s a version built for classrooms. A student’s writing, research, and AI use are recorded as they happen, each step labeled human or AI and sealed in a tamper-evident, time-anchored chain so it can’t be back-dated or altered. Teachers see a timeline, draft history, and a human-vs-AI breakdown — evidence to inform their judgment, not an automated score or a plagiarism verdict. See the For Schools page.

Is there an API for developers?

Yes. You can verify a work’s authorship programmatically — a public endpoint returns a record’s status by its validation number, no account required — so you can embed a “Built with Authorship Ledger” proof into your own product or workflow. See the Developers page for details.

How does pricing work?

Authorship Ledger is paid, and sold like ISBNs rather than as a subscription: you buy project credits and spend one credit to register and document one work. No monthly fee and no expiration pressure — you buy what you need. Current packs and prices are on the store.

What does a credit include?

One credit covers registering, recording, certifying, and verifying a single work, plus a generous allowance of in-app AI assistance (text and image) and media storage for that project. Blockchain anchoring is included and unmetered. Live Project and Forensic Reconstruction credits are sold separately because they cover different workflows.

Do you offer gifts or beta access?

Yes. We can issue redemption codes — single-use codes that grant credits without a purchase, for gifts or beta testers. If you’ve received a code, sign in and use “Redeem a code” on your dashboard; the credits then behave exactly like purchased ones.

Who can see my work?

Your drafts, prompts, and media are private to your account. What’s public is only the verification layer — a work’s validation number, the integrity of its hash chain, and its timestamp — which confirms a record exists and is intact without exposing its contents.

Is my information safe from hacking?

Security is built into the platform, not bolted on. Connections are encrypted in transit, sensitive data is encrypted at rest, and passwords are hashed — never stored in a readable form. Your drafts, prompts, and any keys you connect stay private to your account and are never shown back in plain text, and access is authenticated on every request.

Just as important, the record itself is built so its integrity doesn’t depend on trusting us. Every entry is sealed in a tamper-evident hash chain and can be anchored to a public blockchain, so any attempt to alter it — by an outside attacker or anyone else — would be detectable and provable. We also continuously harden the platform and monitor for automated and abusive activity.

For obvious reasons, we don’t publish the specifics of those safeguards — doing so would only help someone trying to defeat them — and no honest platform can promise it is unbreakable. What we can say is that we treat your work as sensitive and verify its integrity independently of our own systems, so even a breach could not silently rewrite your authorship record.

Do you train AI on my work?

No. Your work is yours. Authorship Ledger doesn’t use your content to train AI models; the AI features in the app are tools you direct, recorded as part of your process.

Can I export my data?

Yes. Your evidence package and process history are exportable, so your documentation is portable and not locked in. And because anchoring lives on a public blockchain, your proof of timing remains verifiable independently of us.

How do I get started?

Create an account, add credits (or redeem a code), then start a Live Project and press record before you begin creating — or choose Forensic Reconstruction to document something you’ve already finished.

Still have questions?

Authorship Ledger is a product of Agentive Press. Reach us through agentivepress.net and we’ll be glad to help.