Although it has been spun out of a non-profit organisation, this great idea for copy protection of creative concepts still seems incredibly expensive.
The principle of Creative Barcode is that one generates a unique barcode for items of creative work. These are appended to the documentation in digital and printed forms and effectively watermark the ownership and credentials of the work prior to distribution. Were this to be the end of the story it might seem that the costs (£195 setup with 5 barcodes, thereafter £6 per code/piece of work) was excessive. However, throw in a few additional elements like standalone software, file lookup/transfer services and so on and the price is softened a little.
Without looking into it in detail I do wonder whether the £6 charge works across a project or whether you would have to generate a new barcode for every deliverable?
In any event, is there something a little more Creative Commons that could supply similar protection, or would something ‘free’ lack protective rigour?
John Gibbard 