Most consent failures are not malice. They are missing entries. A collaboration made sense in a chat thread at the start of a project; the images are selling months later; by the time a question arrives, no one can produce the message where the use of a likeness was actually agreed. Ships keep logbooks for a reason. Keep the record the same way: small, plain, and entered before the first leg — not reconstructed after a dispute is already under way.
The smallest sufficient entry
For every real person whose face, body or photographs enter the work, keep four things together. Identification — who they are, and how their adulthood was verified. Scope — what may be made: stills, clips, swaps, undress transformations, stated in words rather than assumed. Term — how long the permission runs, and whether it can be withdrawn. The agreement itself — a signed release, or at minimum a written exchange in which the scope is stated and accepted, saved as a file and not left inside a chat application.
Habits that keep the logbook honest
- Scope is literal. Consent to appear in clothed stills is not consent to undress transformations. A new use earns a new line in the logbook, agreed before the job runs.
- Withdrawal is real. If a collaborator withdraws, production stops and published pieces come down. A record that cannot execute a withdrawal is not a consent record.
- Fictional characters keep a different file. There is no person to consent — but keep the passenger record and the first frames. “This performer is fictional” is a claim you may one day be asked to show your working for.
- Records travel with the work. The folder for a set holds its consent entry beside the finished files, so an audit never becomes an excavation.
When in doubt, sail without it
The arithmetic is uneven. One undocumented set can cost an account, a storefront and a name. The set you declined costs a week of the crossing. BlockAPacific’s rules follow the same arithmetic — uploads and swaps require adulthood and consent, and moderation may ask to see the entry. Having it ready is what professional looks like.