No. 01An introduction
The mark of the maker, returned to the work.
Tegata gives creative work an authenticated mark — an Asset Passport that travels with each piece, carrying the maker's identity, the terms of use, and a signal that lets us recognise the work wherever it appears.
Your work is yours. We help you prove it.
Asset Passport
No. 00472
Cueva del Indio
Arecibo, Puerto Rico · 2025
A demonstration Passport. Each Passport is unique to its work.
te·ga·ta /teˈɡɑːtə/
Japanese
- 1A handprint stamped in ink as an authenticated mark of authorship. Traditionally given by sumo wrestlers — the wrestler's red handprint on paperboard, signed in calligraphy, authenticated by serial number, stamped to indicate rank.
- 2By extension: any mark that proves a thing is yours.
No. 02 — How it works
Mint a passport. Set your terms. Send your work into the world.
i.
Mint
A maker mints an Asset Passport for a piece of work. The passport carries identity, terms of use, and the maker's hidden signal.
ii.
Set terms
The maker sets the terms — commercial use, derivatives, AI training. The passport carries them everywhere the work goes.
iii.
Recognise & route
When the signal surfaces a copy, the maker decides. When a request comes in, the maker decides. The work is the maker's. The decisions are too.
No. 03 — The return of the mark
For most of history, a maker's mark travelled with the work.
A seal on a letter. A signature on a canvas. A wax stamp on a parcel. A handprint on rice paper, authenticated by an expert and serialised on the back. The mark said three things at once: this came from me, what's mine to give, and where to find me if it goes somewhere it shouldn't.
The mark wasn't decoration. It was infrastructure — the part of culture that let creative work travel without losing its identity.
Somewhere in the last twenty years, the mark fell off.
The work kept moving. It moved faster than ever, further than ever, into more hands and more machines than any maker before us could have imagined. But the thing that bound the work to its maker — the small authenticated record that travelled alongside it — was left behind. We are told this is a law of the internet. It isn't. It is a habit the internet got into when no one was watching.
The cost of that habit is now visible. Work is reposted without attribution and the maker has no recourse. Work is fed to models without consent and the maker has no notice. Work is licensed for purposes the maker never agreed to and the maker has no say. The internet did not strip creative work of its identity. We did, by accepting tools that were never built to keep the mark attached.
Tegata is the return of the mark.
Every piece of work gets a small, authenticated record that travels with it. The record carries the maker's identity, the terms of use, and a signal that lets us recognise the work wherever it appears. When the work is reused honestly, the record makes that easy. When it is reused dishonestly, the record makes that visible.
Your work is yours. We help you prove it.
— The Tegata team
No. 04 — Request access
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