It is Friday night. The novel is done, the photo set is edited, the track is mixed. Tomorrow it goes online.
Before you press publish, take four short steps. They do not give you copyright. You already have that. They give you proof of date and state.
You already own the copyright
Copyright starts the moment you create the work, and you decide when it is published first.
Swiss law is plain on this. The Swiss Copyright Act says in Art. 29(1): "A work is protected by copyright as soon as it is created, irrespective of whether it has been fixed on a physical medium." No form and no register is needed. The Berne Convention says the same for its 182 contracting parties in Art. 5(2): "The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality".
The Act also gives you control over the first release. Under Art. 9(2) the author decides "whether, when, how and under what author's designation his own work is published for the first time."
So what is missing? Proof. If someone copies your work next year, you must show what you had and when. A file on your laptop shows a date that anyone can change. The four steps below fix that.
Step 1: Seal the folder
Sealing records a fingerprint of each file with a signed timestamp, and gives you a certificate anyone can check.
Upload your files into a folder on Swiss Trust Layer and seal it. The platform computes a cryptographic fingerprint of each file and of the sealed package. Only the fingerprint goes to Swisscom Trust Services, the qualified trust service provider. The file itself is not sent to them.
Swisscom signs the fingerprint and adds a timestamp under RFC 3161. For a PDF the signature is embedded in the PDF itself. The sealed package is then stored on the storage you chose, such as Azure or Google Drive.
Every sealed version gets a certificate of proof, a signed PDF. It lists each file name and its fingerprint. The first row is the folder itself with its version number. The certificate carries a QR code to a public verification page, and that page needs no login. Anyone can also drop a signed PDF into the public validator and see who signed it, when, and whether it changed since.
Step 2: Identify yourself
Identity verification is optional, but it ties the seal to a real person and unlocks the next two steps.
You can seal without this step. The seal is still valid, and the platform marks the version as sealed without identity verification. If you want your name on the proof, verify once. The platform uses DIDIT. You scan your passport or the chip of your national ID card.
When you are verified at sealing, the certificate shows your surname, name, date of birth, country and a masked passport number. No plain passport number is stored. Verified owners also get one ISCC content code per file on the certificate, under ISO 24138.
Verification is also the key to the rest of the routine. Content labels, ESCROW Storage, approvers and sharing with ProLitteris all need a verified identity.
Step 3: Label the content
A content label says how much AI was involved, who claims rights, and whether AI training is allowed.
Labels follow the ProLitteris Content Label Terms v1.2. You do not pick a label. You answer a few questions per file, and the label is derived from your answers. The six labels are AI FREE, AI ASSISTED, AI MODIFIED, AI GENERATED, HUMAN AUTHORED and HUMAN APPROVED.
Two labels carry extra weight. "Declaring HUMAN AUTHORED binds the label to your verified identity." And "For HUMAN AUTHORED content, HUMAN APPROVED must come from a different, identity-verified person." The platform is open about the limit: "This is a self-declaration and does not affect copyright."
In the same step you state which rights you claim, such as copyright or performers' rights. You also say whether, to your knowledge, other people hold rights. Both appear on the certificate as "Rights claimed" and "Other rights holders". One last question asks if you reserve or authorise text and data mining for AI training. You can choose the opt-out, a machine-readable reservation of rights that says AI training is not authorised.
Step 4: Put it in escrow
ESCROW Storage is an optional Swiss deposit of your sealed work, bound to your passport, that you can reach without the platform.
ESCROW Storage is opt-in. The platform describes it as "Swiss-hosted, identity-verified primary storage for your sealed work". Your sealed folders are deposited in Swisscom Dynamic Storage, separate from the platform cloud. The roles are split: "Swisscom Trust Services provides the storage, ProLitteris operates the escrow, Swiss Trust Layer provides the technology".
The deposit is bound to your passport-verified identity. For every deposited folder you get an Escrow Proof PDF with a personal ESCROW ID. You can retrieve the work without platform access. Retrieval is possible in person at ProLitteris with your biometric passport, or through a contracted lawyer.
Two things to know before you switch it on. It needs a verified identity. And it is a one-way move. Once a folder is in escrow, it stays there.
After you publish
When the work changes, add a new version; the old seal stays on the old version.
Published work keeps changing. A second edition, a new crop, a remaster. Do not seal over the old one. Open the folder, go to Version History, choose Add new Version and seal again. Each version keeps its own seal and its own certificate.
Any change to a file gives a different fingerprint. That is the point. The old certificate still proves the old state on the old date. The new one proves the new state.
Declarations are locked once a version is sealed. If you add labels later, the platform re-seals and creates a new version with your declarations. So label before you seal if you can.
What a seal does not do
A seal proves date and state; it does not prove authorship, truth or rights, and it does not create copyright.
Be clear about the limits. A seal proves this exact file existed at that moment and has not changed since. It does not prove who created the content, or that the content is true. Nor does it show that the person who sealed it holds the rights. A label is a self-declaration, and escrow is storage. None of this creates copyright. Copyright arises with creation, under Art. 29 of the Swiss Copyright Act and Art. 5(2) of the Berne Convention.
Before you publish, seal the folder on Swiss Trust Layer, verify your identity once, and declare the label for each file.
