Timeline of sourcing and provenance rules

1. 23 December 1918Historical

   US Supreme Court decides INS v. Associated Press

   The Court held that news is quasi property as between competitors, in a dispute over one agency taking another's bulletins ¹.

2. 1941Historical

   Reuters Trust Principles created

   The first principle says Reuters shall at no time pass into the hands of any one interest, group or faction ².

3. 10 January 1957Historical

   Law No. 57-32 gives AFP its statute

   AFP becomes an independent body under private law, according to the French Ministry of Culture ³.

4. 1994Historical

   England and Wales abolish mandatory corroboration warnings

   Section 32 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 abrogated the obligatory warning about accomplices and sexual offence complainants ²⁰.

5. 22 May 2001In force

   EU InfoSoc Directive adopted

   Article 5(3)(c) lets Member States allow press reuse and reporting of current events, as long as the source and author are indicated ²⁶.

6. 31 March 2005Official finding

   US WMD Commission reports

   It found briefings left an impression of many corroborating reports where there were very few sources ⁴.

7. 26 December 2007In force

   US trial registration deadline begins

   42 CFR 11.24 sets registration by this date or 21 calendar days after first enrolment, whichever is later ¹⁵.

8. 2009Historical

   COPE Retraction Guidelines version 1

   COPE published the first version of its retraction guidelines ¹⁶.

9. 30 April 2013In force

   W3C PROV Recommendations

   Four PROV Recommendations were dated 30 April 2013 ⁶.

10. 2 January 2015In force

    ICD 203 Analytic Standards signed

    The first tradecraft standard asks analysts to describe the quality and credibility of underlying sources ⁵.

11. April 2015Historical

    Scotland drops corroboration abolition

    The government removed the corroboration provisions from the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill on publication of Lord Bonomy's review ¹⁹.

12. 1 July 2018In force

    ICMJE data sharing statements required

    Manuscripts reporting trial results must contain a data sharing statement ¹⁴.

13. 17 April 2019In force

    EU copyright directive adopted

    Article 15 creates a two-year right for press publishers over online uses ⁷.

14. 24 July 2019In force

    France adopts its related rights law

    The law transposed the EU directive, according to the Autorité de la concurrence ⁸.

15. 11 December 2019Historical

    COPE Retraction Guidelines version 2

    COPE published version 2 of the guidelines ¹⁶.

16. 9 April 2020Historical

    France orders Google to negotiate

    Decision 20-MC-01 imposed interim measures on Google ⁸.

17. 2 December 2020In force

    Berkeley Protocol published

    The Berkeley Human Rights Center dates the protocol, made with OHCHR, to this day ²¹.

18. 2 March 2021In force

    Australia's bargaining code takes effect

    No platform has since been designated, per the ACCC ⁹.

19. 7 June 2021In force

    EU transposition deadline

    Member States had to bring the copyright directive into force by this date ⁷.

20. 12 July 2021Official finding

    France fines Google €500 million

    Decision 21-D-17 found Google had not complied with the 2020 injunctions ⁸.

21. 3 January 2022In force

    OHCHR publishes the Berkeley Protocol

    OHCHR lists the joint publication with this date ²².

22. 21 June 2022In force

    Google commitments accepted in France

    Decision 22-D-13 made commitments binding for five years, renewable once ⁸.

23. 1 September 2022In force

    South African press code takes effect

    Clause 1.7 says doubtful information must be verified if practicable, and if not, this shall be stated ¹⁷.

24. 22 June 2023In force

    Canada's Online News Act assented

    The CRTC notes Royal Assent on this date ¹⁰.

25. 19 December 2023In force

    Canada's Online News regulations in force

    The CRTC says the Online News Act regulations came into force on this date ¹⁰.

26. 15 March 2024Official finding

    France fines Google €250 million

    Decision 24-D-03 found breaches of four of seven commitments, including over AI training use ⁸.

27. 13 June 2024In force

    EU AI Act adopted

    Article 50 sets marking and disclosure duties for AI-generated content ¹¹.

28. 28 October 2024In force

    CRTC exempts Google for five years

    Google must pay $100 million to the Canadian Journalism Collective within 60 days ¹⁰.

29. 1 January 2025In force

    UK Editors' Code version in force

    The Code read is in force from this date ²⁴.

30. 19 March 2025In force

    German Pressekodex version

    The version read is dated 19 March 2025 ²³.

31. May 2025In force

    C2PA specification 2.2

    The version history dates version 2.2 to May 2025 ²⁵.

32. 1 September 2025In force

    China's AI labelling measures take effect

    Explicit and implicit labels required, with a mandatory national standard in force the same day ¹².

33. 4 September 2025In force

    COPE Retraction Guidelines version 3

    Added sections on batch retractions and communicating with authors ¹⁶.

34. 2 August 2026In force

    EU AI Act general application and California AI Transparency Act

    The AI Act applies from this date under Article 113 ¹¹. California's chapter became operative the same day ¹³.

35. 4 October 2026In force

    SPJ Code of Ethics revised

    The revised code asks journalists to verify the provenance and authenticity of the methods, sources and technology used to produce news ¹⁸.

36. 1 January 2027Announced

    California platform provenance duties

    Large online platforms must detect provenance data and not knowingly strip it ¹³.

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