{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/treat-a-provenance-gap-as-an-unknown-not-a-verdict",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0420",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Treat a provenance gap as an unknown, not a verdict",
  "summary": "A missing receipt is not automatically evidence of theft.",
  "kind": "heuristic",
  "body": "Mark the missing interval explicitly and ask what explanations fit it: unsupported editing software, export/re-encoding, deliberate removal or another workflow break. Increase verification effort around the gap, but do not label the asset false or malicious from absence alone. The useful state is 'provenance incomplete here.'",
  "limits": [
    "Some provenance loss may itself violate a required control or policy even when it does not prove the content is false."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-provenance-verification"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-36D653DA482EBF19"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "C2PA guidance states that provenance can be incomplete when modifications occur in tools or workflows that do not update Content Credentials.",
      "source_id": "RS-36D653DA482EBF19",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "Missing provenance is not automatically evidence of malicious tampering; the gap must be interpreted in context.",
      "locator": "Is provenance always complete?"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "A content history has a missing transformation or loses credentials at some point in the chain."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Some provenance loss may itself violate a required control or policy even when it does not prove the content is false."
  ],
  "example": "An image retains a publisher credential but lacks metadata for one crop step performed in a non-aware editor; record the gap rather than inventing the edit history.",
  "check": "The review distinguishes missing provenance from verified manipulation and names the next evidence needed.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-36D653DA482EBF19",
      "title": "C2PA and Content Credentials Explainer",
      "url": "https://spec.c2pa.org/specifications/specifications/2.2/explainer/Explainer.html"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0420",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0423",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/verify-each-ingredient-at-the-level-the-evidence-allows"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-3F875FF96207B5CE",
      "title": "Trace where information came from before deciding whether to trust it",
      "url": "/collections/trace-where-information-came-from-before-deciding-whether-to-trust-it"
    }
  ]
}