The words this niche uses, defined once.

Fingerprinting

Perceptual hash

A short string of bits computed from the content of an image or frame, not its bytes. Two visually similar images produce hashes that differ in only a few bits, which is what lets a platform recognise a re-encoded video. See what a video uniquifier is.

dHash (difference hash)

A perceptual hash that compares the brightness of adjacent pixels, then stores which one is brighter as a bit. It is fast, robust to small scaling and colour changes, and is the measurement RepurposeThis reports per output.

Hamming distance

The number of bits that differ between two hashes. A dHash distance of 0 means “the same picture”; larger numbers mean more visual difference. There is no universal “safe” threshold — it depends on the hash size and the platform.

Audio fingerprint

A signature of the soundtrack's spectral peaks over time. It survives compression and background noise, which is why re-encoding a video rarely changes it. This is why audio controls exist alongside visual ones.

Fingerprint Lab

The RepurposeThis screen that runs one effect at a time on your source, measures the resulting distance, and ranks the effects. It answers “which slider actually matters for this footage?” rather than applying a generic recipe.

Video and audio

Codec

The algorithm that compresses video or audio — H.264 (x264), H.265 (HEVC), AV1, AAC. The codec affects quality and file size, but not whether the content is recognised.

Container

The wrapper file: MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV. It holds the video and audio streams plus metadata. Re-muxing (changing the container without re-encoding) changes the file but barely touches the fingerprint.

Bitrate

How much data is used per second. Higher bitrate generally means better quality and a larger file. Re-encoding at a different bitrate changes the bytes and the compression artefacts, not the composition.

Frame rate

Frames per second. Changing it alters timing and the container header; it can also make a re-upload look slightly different in motion.

Keyframe

A frame stored in full rather than as a difference from the previous frame. Keyframe placement affects seeking and is part of a file's compression signature.

B-roll

Supplementary footage used to illustrate narration. In faceless channels it is most of the visual content, which makes its licensing the central production question. See the faceless channel guide.

UGC

User-generated content: footage shot by a creator rather than a studio. In advertising it usually means creator-style testimonials and demos, licensed for specific uses. See UGC ad variations.

Metadata

Metadata

Everything about the file that is not the media itself: device, creation time, encoder, software, location, orientation, sometimes edit history.

EXIF

The camera metadata standard. A phone photo typically carries make, model, lens, exposure and a timestamp. Rewriting it per image is a core part of image uniquification.

IPTC and XMP

Metadata standards used mostly for editorial and rights information: creator, credit line, keywords, copyright. XMP is extensible and often carries editing-application history.

Metadata stripping

Removing the original tags before publishing. Useful for privacy (GPS, device) and for avoiding an obvious shared export signature. Stripping alone does not change the pixels.

Platforms

Duplicate detection

The comparison systems that decide whether an upload matches an earlier one. It combines exact hashes, perceptual hashes, audio fingerprints, metadata and account signals. See how detection works.

Reused content

A monetisation policy category, most associated with YouTube: material taken from another source without meaningful original commentary or transformation. It is a different test from duplicate detection. See the YouTube guide.

Repost

Two different acts share the word. A platform repost credits and redistributes the original; re-uploading a file publishes a new copy. Only the second raises a duplicate comparison. See reposting a video.

Watermark

A visible mark burned into the frames. On short-form platforms it is also a distribution signal: visibly recycled content with another app's watermark is commonly treated as less original.

Hook

The first one to three seconds of a short video, where the viewer decides whether to keep watching. In ad testing the hook is a message variable, not a file variable.

Rights and licensing

Public domain / CC0

Works with no copyright restrictions, or a waiver that removes them. Still check the source: a site can mislabel a clip it does not own.

Creative Commons (CC BY, CC BY-SA)

Licences that permit reuse with conditions. CC BY requires attribution; share-alike variants can require your derivative to carry the same licence.

Editorial use

A licence limited to commentary, criticism or reporting — not advertising or commercial promotion. A news clip licensed for editorial use cannot be repurposed into a product ad.

UGC licence

The agreement that grants you rights to a creator's footage. It should name the platforms, the duration, the permitted edits and whether it can be used in paid ads.

Product terms

Uniquifier

Software that produces measurably different copies of a media file by changing frames, audio and container data. A video uniquifier handles video; an image uniquifier handles stills.

Ranged effect

An effect defined by a minimum and maximum instead of one value. Each copy samples its own value, which is what makes a batch of copies differ from each other.

Offline licence

A key verified on the machine with a public-key signature, without contacting a server. RepurposeThis uses Ed25519 and binds each key to a machine ID. See licensing.

Machine ID

A short hash of an OS identifier, shown on the activation screen, used to bind a licence key to one computer. It is not a hardware serial number and cannot be reversed.

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