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I re-generated a Kling clip ten times. Which version do I register?

2026-10-28 · OpenStela

Register the file you're going to publish: the exact export you upload to YouTube, send to a client or enter in a contest. A record fingerprints one file. If you register take 7 and then trim two seconds and add music before posting, the posted video is a different file with a different fingerprint, and the record no longer matches it.

The other nine takes are optional. Most of them are just rolls of the dice and don't need a record. Register an earlier one only if it shows something you'd want to point to later: a take you shared publicly, one you sent to a client for approval, or the raw clip before you edited it. If you do register more than one, you can mark a newer work as a version of an older one. That link is its own dated record, and it shows the order of the versions.

One record, one file

Every work you register on OpenStela gets an authorship record. It holds your name, the date, a rights declaration, the AI tools you list, a description of what you contributed, and the SHA-256 fingerprint of the file. That record is anchored to a public chain in the nightly batch, and it can't be edited afterwards. Only the title, the note and the public switch can change.

So the fingerprint is the whole point, and it's very literal. Re-export the same edit at a different bitrate and you have a new fingerprint. Download the clip again from somewhere that recompresses it and you have a new fingerprint. When someone checks your record months later, they hash the file they're holding and compare. If it isn't the same file, it won't match.

That's why "which version" matters more for video than people expect. A Kling session can easily produce a dozen near-identical clips. They look the same to you, but each one is a different file.

Which file is "final"

Pick the file that leaves your hands. In practice that's usually one of these:

1. The edited export. If you cut the Kling clip, colour-graded it, added sound or titles in an editor, register the exported file. That's the version with your own work in it, and it's what people will see.
2. The untouched Kling download. If you post the clip exactly as Kling gave it to you, register that download. Use the original file, not a screen recording or a copy saved back from a social app.
3. The delivery file. For client work, register the file you deliver, under the name agreed with the client. I made a Runway video for a client. Who should register it? covers who should hold that record.

Then keep that file unchanged in a folder you back up. The record proves nothing about a file you've lost or overwritten.

Videos can be uploaded on the works page at up to 95 MB per file. Uploaded works share 300 MB of space per account, and there's a daily cap on how many works one account can register; the error message tells you the number if you hit it. Registering is free within those limits; see pricing. If your final cut is over 95 MB, you can register the public post link instead, but a post link fingerprints a snapshot of the post, not the video itself. How to put a date on an AI video explains that difference.

Should the other nine get records too?

Usually not. Here's a simple test: would you ever want to show this exact file to someone? If not, leave it on your drive.

Takes worth registering:

• A take you published. If take 3 went on TikTok last week and the final cut goes on YouTube today, both are out in the world. Each deserves its own record.
• A take a client approved. The approved draft and the final delivery are both points in the job you might need to show.
• The raw clip behind a heavy edit. Registering the Kling output and then the edited cut gives you two dated fingerprints, with your editing between them.
• A take that set up the look. If one early clip defined the character's style and everything else follows from it, it can be worth having on record.

Takes not worth registering: the ones where the hand melted, the camera drifted, or the motion was wrong. They aren't evidence of anything you'd want to argue.

One practical note: we don't stop you uploading the same file twice. Each upload creates a separate authorship record. That's harmless, but it's clutter, so check your works page before you register a take you might already have.

Link the versions so the order shows

If you register two or more versions, you can mark the newer one as a version of the earlier one. We call this a version link (internally, lineage). Setting it writes a separate evidence record. That record contains the earlier work's id, title, registration date and authorship fingerprint. Like the authorship records, it goes into the nightly anchoring batch.

How to set it:

1. Register each version as its own work on the works page.
2. If the clips belong to a character, bind them all to that character. Open the character's page, go to its works, and open the checks panel on the newer work.
3. In Version of:, choose the earlier work. The link is saved straight away.
4. Repeat for the next version, pointing it at the one before. Take 7 points to take 3, and the final cut points to take 7.

On the character's public page, the newer work then shows "Version of" with the earlier work's title.

If the clips aren't bound to a character, the selector isn't on the works page yet. You can set the same link through the API: PATCH /api/aworks/{id} with derived_from set to the earlier work's id. The developers page has the setup. The AI assistant connector doesn't have a version-link tool, so in Claude or ChatGPT you can register the works, but you set the link yourself.

A few rules. Both works have to be in your own account, and the earlier one can't have been deleted. A work can't point to itself, and two works can't point to each other. You can change or clear the link later. Changing it adds a new record. The old one stays in the register, because anchored records aren't deleted.

What a version link shows, and what it doesn't

A version link records your statement that one registered work is a later version of another, and when you made that statement. The record itself says it's "declared by the holder; establishes order of versions, not identity". We don't compare the two videos. We don't check that take 7 really came out of take 3, and we don't judge whether they look alike. Since September 2026 the platform hasn't made visual judgements about content at all. It records what you declare and the facts it can check, such as dates and fingerprints.

What you get is a chain of dated fingerprints, each anchored, with your declared order on top. If a dispute comes up, that's more to show than a single final file: it shows the clip existed in an earlier form on an earlier date, and that you claimed the sequence at the time. It's evidence. It doesn't prove you own the clip or that it's protected, and it doesn't stop anyone else from generating something similar.

Ten takes and copyright

It's tempting to think ten re-generations add up to authorship. The US Copyright Office says they don't. In Part 2 of its report on copyright and artificial intelligence, published on January 29, 2025, the Office wrote that "Repeatedly revising prompts does not change this analysis or provide a sufficient basis for claiming copyright in the output." It describes re-submitting a prompt as "re-rolling" the dice (report, p. 20).

The same report also says human authors are entitled to copyright in "the creative selection, coordination, or arrangement of material in the outputs, or creative modifications of the outputs" (p. iii). That's one more reason the edited cut is usually the right file to register. It's also why your contribution field should describe what you actually did: "Wrote the shot list; cut four Kling takes into one sequence; colour grade and sound design in DaVinci Resolve." Don't write "generated ten times until it looked right". How much do I have to do for an AI work to be protected? goes into this in more detail, and Are my prompts copyrightable? covers the prompt side.

What you and Kling may each do with your inputs and outputs is set by Kling AI's Terms of Service. Read the current version for your plan; it changes. This is general information, not legal advice, and it covers only the US Copyright Office's position. Other countries may treat AI video differently.