Google (or some other search engine) needs to write something that makes it easy for anyone to "find the original" of some bunch of data (image, long-enough-str

Google (or some other search engine) needs to write something that makes it easy for anyone to "find the original" of some bunch of data (image, long-enough-string, music sample, etc.). Such a tool would ideally also be able to find derivative works. This way attribution is trivial, and people will be much more willing to give their works away, while others would feel better about copying and modifying it. It would also render watermarks redundant. Tin Eye, Google Image search, and Google's own algorithmic preference for original content probably get you half-way there, but it's easy to imagine how great it would be to have a full-featured "attribution discoverer" (or whatever).