1. “What Do We Mean by Authentic? What’s the Real McCoy?” By H.M. Gladney J.L. Bennet Presented by Thom Lutkenhouse - Tax Day 2004 - Digital Preservation Seminar D-Lib Magazine July/August 2003

2. No Technical Solution for an Undefined Term "...there are different communities and may be different perceptions in authenticity although there still might be a more generic idea of authenticity. This may lead to different solutions because the requirements are not always the same." -Hans Hofman, Digicult Conference, Barcelona 2002

3. Taken from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july03/gladney/07gladney.html “...restrict our statements about authenticity to...forms 1 through 9”

4. Comparing Apples to Apples... "... Nonetheless, given that a digital information object is not something... preserved as an inscription on a physical medium, but something that can only be... reconstructed by using software to process stored inscriptions, it is necessary to have an explicit model or standard that is independent of the stored object and that provides a criterion... for assessing the authenticity of the reconstructed object." -Kenneth Thibodeau, April 2002

5. Taken from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july03/gladney/07gladney.html

6. A Careful Definition “To be authentic a digital document must be whole and undisturbed — that's integrity. It must have originated with the purported author as part of the purported event — that's true provenance.”

7. Enumerating Separate Questions of Authenticity What do we mean by authentic? What do we mean by evidence for authenticity? What kinds of authenticity evidence might be available for something at hand? How can information producers create such evidence that will be useful long in the future? What do we mean by authentic? What do we mean by evidence for authenticity? What kinds of authenticity evidence might be available for something at hand? How can information producers create such evidence that will be useful long in the future? How can such evidence be preserved until it is wanted? To what extent should a consumer trust a document received and supporting evidence received? Is the authenticity evidence sufficient for the application in question? How might evidence be different for different information genres?

8. Steps to Disambiguate the Meaning of Authenticity First, avoid intersecting meanings of quality terms: Taken from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july03/gladney/07gladney.html

9. Distinguish Objective from Subjective Taken from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july03/gladney/07gladney.html

10. Meaning of authenitc should be binary Definition of digital objects should remain as continuous as possible with existing tradition Authenticity should not depend on intentions of producers, custodians or consumers Meaning of authenitc should be binary Definition of digital objects should remain as continuous as possible with existing tradition Authenticity should not depend on intentions of producers, custodians or consumers

11. Unable to Escape Abstractions “In copyright law, what is essential about a work is a pattern inherent in its reproductive instances” “The paper and the archive exist in order to provide evidence for the conceptual abstraction” “In copyright law, what is essential about a work is a pattern inherent in its reproductive instances” “The paper and the archive exist in order to provide evidence for the conceptual abstraction”

12. A More Careful Definition Given a derivation statement R,“V is a copy of Y (V=C(Y))” a provenance statement S,“X said or created Y as part of event Z” and a copy function,“C is the identity function I” We say that V has integrity compared to Y if V is identical (bit-by-bit equal) to Y, i.e., V=I(Y). We say that “by X as part of event Z” is a true provenance of V if R and S are true. We say that V is an authentic copy of Y if it has such integrity and true provenance.

13. Definition for Digital Derivatives Given a derivation statement R,“V is a copy of Y (V=C(Y))” a provenance statement S,“X said or created Y as part of event Z” and a copy function,“C(y)=T n (…(t 1 (y))), with every T k having an inverse, We say that V has integrity compared to Y if V is related to Y by V = C(Y) = T n (…(t 1 (Y))), We say that “by X as part of event Z” is a true provenance of V if R and S are true. We say that V is an authentic copy of Y if it has such integrity and true provenance.

14. Note on Transformation Functions “… the definitions above...do not restrict what transformations are allowed. These are users’ subjective choices. Anyone may do as he pleases, at the risk that other people do not accept his output object as an authentic derivative of the input if his choice goes beyond the social conventions for the circumstances.”

15. Lossy or Analog Given a derivation statement R,“V is a copy of Y (V=C(Y))” a provenance statement S,“X said or created Y as part of event Z” and a copy function,“C(y)=D n (…(D 1 (y))), in which some D k lose information We say that V has sufficient integrity relative to Y if V = C(Y) = D n (…(D 1 (Y))), and if C conforms to social convention for the genre and circumstances at hand. We say that “by X as part of event Z” is a true provenance of V if R and S are true. We say that V is an authentic copy of Y if it has such integrity and true provenance.

16. Performances and Dynamic Objects Performance Prescriptions –Scores, plays, procedures Recordings of performances –Audio, video, logs Snapshots –Video freeze-frame, machine states Performance Prescriptions –Scores, plays, procedures Recordings of performances –Audio, video, logs Snapshots –Video freeze-frame, machine states

17. Artifacts “People who judge whether or not an object is authentic make their own choices of what to use as the comparison standard for the object at hand.”

18. Natural Entities “How much a natural entity can differ from its prior existence without losing the ‘authentic’ cachet is again a matter of social convention.”

19. Material Entities and Signals Given a derivation statement R,“V is a copy of Y (V=C(Y))” a provenance statement S,“X said or created Y as part of event Z” and a copy function, “C(y)=T n (…(T 1 (y))) We say that V is a derivative of Y if V is related to Y according to R. We say that “by X as part of event Z” is a true provenance of V if R and S are true. We say that V is sufficiently faithful to Y if C conforms to social conventions for the genre and for the circumstances at hand. V is an authentic copy of Y if sufficiently faithful and has true provenance.

20. Conclusion “...by handling precisely and objectively what can be handled precisely and objectively, we free ourselves to think carefully about the subjective values affecting decisions about the authenticity and trustworthiness of artifacts and signals.”

21. The Authentic Schooner Bowdoin

22. Thank You Very Much !