Building a solid evidence file: best practices

You may only need proof of prior existence once, but on that day it must be beyond reproach. A few simple habits make all the difference.

Deposit early, and at every stage

Don't wait for the final version. Date the first draft, then the key stages: a change of direction, a version shown to a third party, a delivered version. A single certificate has evidentiary value. A series of deposits on successive versions forms a body of consistent evidence, stronger before a judge.

Always date before you show: before a meeting, a submission, a publication or an application.

Deposit the right file

Deposit the working file itself, not just a screenshot: source file, high-resolution export, code archive. For a set of files, group them in a compressed archive: a single certificate covers the whole set.

Give the deposit a clear title and add a short description: what the file is, the project stage, the people involved. Years later, this context will save you from having to reconstruct everything from memory.

Keep the original, unchanged

The certificate attests to an exact state of the file: the fingerprint (the unique string of characters computed from its content) changes entirely as soon as a single byte is modified. So keep a strictly identical copy of each deposited file, without renaming it inside an archive or re-saving it.

Store this copy in two separate places. The certificate stays verifiable for life, but the file kept in your Ipocamp space is deleted three years after your subscription ends.

Document who did what

Name the author or rights holder when depositing. For a joint creation, date each person's contributions and keep assignment or collaboration contracts. In a company, link deposits to the relevant project and team.

Check from time to time

Check that a stored file still matches its certificate: verification is public and requires no account. Better to discover an altered file today than in the middle of a dispute.

This article is for general information purposes and does not replace the advice of a legal professional.