Author and License via IPTC/XMP 2025 — Make credits survive sharing

Metadata often gets lost along the way. Use IPTC/XMP to keep author, rights, and contact “inside the file” so credits survive edits and sharing.

We prioritize fields and mappings that resist stripping. The workflow: apply a template to the master → preserve during edits → verify before publish → post‑publish sampling.

Related: Safe Metadata Policy 2025 — EXIF Stripping, Autorotate, and Privacy by Default / Safe EXIF and Privacy Redaction Workflow 2025

Required fields

• Creator/By‑line (author)
• Copyright Notice
• Credit/Source
• Rights Usage Terms (license/terms)
• Contact Info

Mapping essentials

• IPTC: Creator, Credit, CopyrightNotice, RightsUsageTerms
• XMP‑dc: creator, rights
• XMP‑iptcExt: CopyrightOwner, Licensor, WebStatement

Avoid duplication while redundantly populating key fields across IPTC and XMP for robustness.

Sample mapping

| Purpose | IPTC | XMP‑dc | XMP‑iptcExt | |---|---|---|---| | Author | Creator | creator | CopyrightOwner | | Credit | Credit | — | — | | Copyright | CopyrightNotice | rights | — | | Terms | RightsUsageTerms | rights | WebStatement | | Licensor | — | — | Licensor / LicensorName |

Note: Put the same human‑readable text in rights and RightsUsageTerms, with a detail URL in WebStatement.

Practical flow

1. Apply IPTC/XMP to the master via a template
2. Export with settings that preserve metadata
3. Pre‑publish review. Remove sensitive EXIF (GPS/device IDs) with EXIF Clean + Autorotate
4. For batches, use Batch Optimizer Plus

Pre‑publish review points

• No conflicts between rights and RightsUsageTerms
• Contact URLs resolve (avoid shorteners)
• No sensitive EXIF remains

exiftool template (example)

exiftool -overwrite_original \
  -IPTC:Creator="Unified Image Tools" \
  -IPTC:Credit="Unified Image Tools" \
  -IPTC:CopyrightNotice="© 2025 Unified Image Tools" \
  -IPTC:RightsUsageTerms="CC BY 4.0" \
  -XMP-dc:creator="Unified Image Tools" \
  -XMP-dc:rights="© 2025 Unified Image Tools — CC BY 4.0" \
  -XMP-iptcExt:LicensorName="Unified Image Tools" \
  -XMP-iptcExt:WebStatement="https://www.unifiedimagetools.com/license" \
  input.jpg

ImageMagick (aux)

magick input.jpg -profile sRGB.icc -set copyright "© 2025 Unified Image Tools" out.jpg

Notes

• Social platforms may strip many fields; add redundancy in OGP (title/author/rights) and in the post text.
• Do not embed sensitive data (GPS, serials). Once public, it cannot be recalled.

Interop pitfalls

• Some platforms strip IPTC/XMP almost entirely → back it up in OGP and captions
• Re‑exporting thumbnails can drop metadata → standardize “preserve metadata” settings

Simple batch script (example)

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

tpl_author="Unified Image Tools"
tpl_rights="© 2025 Unified Image Tools — CC BY 4.0"
tpl_web="https://www.unifiedimagetools.com/license"

for f in "$@"; do
  exiftool -overwrite_original \
    -IPTC:Creator="$tpl_author" \
    -IPTC:Credit="$tpl_author" \
    -IPTC:CopyrightNotice="© 2025 Unified Image Tools" \
    -IPTC:RightsUsageTerms="CC BY 4.0" \
    -XMP-dc:creator="$tpl_author" \
    -XMP-dc:rights="$tpl_rights" \
    -XMP-iptcExt:LicensorName="$tpl_author" \
    -XMP-iptcExt:WebStatement="$tpl_web" "$f"
done

FAQ

• Q: Compression drops metadata? A: Depends on tools/settings. Make “preserve” explicit and verify before publish.
• Q: Platforms strip metadata. A: Duplicate credits in OGP and captions. Keep an authoritative source URL.
• Q: Which XMP namespaces are necessary? A: dc (Dublin Core) and iptcExt cover most practical needs.

Summary

Put “who” and “how to use” inside the file. It reduces disputes and inbound requests.

Appendix: quick audits

exiftool -IPTC:Creator -IPTC:CopyrightNotice -IPTC:RightsUsageTerms -XMP-dc:rights "*.jpg" | tee audit.txt
grep -E "(Creator: *$|CopyrightNotice: *$|RightsUsageTerms: *$|rights: *$)" audit.txt && echo "Missing fields detected"

Appendix: JSON read

exiftool -j -IPTC:Creator -IPTC:CopyrightNotice -IPTC:RightsUsageTerms -XMP-dc:rights "*.jpg" > meta.json
jq '.[] | {SourceFile, Creator, CopyrightNotice, RightsUsageTerms, rights}' meta.json