A harbourmaster does not reconstruct a ship’s arrival from memory in autumn; the log was written when she docked. Consent deserves the same discipline. Most failures in this work are not malice but missing entries: a collaboration agreed in a chat thread in spring, images selling by summer, and by autumn nobody can produce the message where the use of a likeness was settled. Keep the log the harbour way — small, plain, dated, and written before the first generation, not after the first question.
The smallest sufficient entry
For every real person whose face, body or photographs enter the work, log 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 from friendship. Term — how long the permission runs, and whether it can be withdrawn.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 rather than left to sink inside a chat application.
Habits that keep the log 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 log, agreed before the job runs.
- Withdrawal is real. If a collaborator withdraws, production stops and published pieces come down from the harbour wall. A log that cannot execute a withdrawal is not a consent record.
- Fictional travellers keep a different file. There is no person to consent — but keep the coast card and the first frames. “This performer is fictional” is a claim you may one day be asked to show your working for.
- The log sails with the work. The folder for a set holds its consent entry beside the finished files, so an audit never becomes an excavation along the whole coast.
When in doubt, stay in harbour
The arithmetic is uneven. One undocumented set can cost an account, a storefront and a name. The set you declined costs a week of evenings. TokenAsiaMap’s rules follow the same arithmetic — uploads and swaps require adulthood and consent, and moderation may ask to see the log. Having it ready, dated and plain, is what professional looks like on this coast.