Abstract: Currently, global-features-based image copy detection is vulnerable to geometric transformations like cropping, shift, and rotations. To resolve this problem, some algorithms based on local descriptors have been proposed. However, the local descriptors, which were originally designed for object recognition, are not suitable for copy detection because they cause the problems of false positives and ambiguities. Instead of relying on the local gradient statistic as many existing descriptors do, we propose a new invariant local descriptor based on local polar-mapping and discrete Fourier transform. Then based on this descriptor, we propose a new framework of copy detection, in which virtual prior attacks and attack weight are employed for training and selecting only a few robust features. This consequently improves the storage and detection efficiency. In addition, it is worth noting that the feature matching takes the locations and orientations of interest points into consideration, which increases the number of matched regions and improves the recall. Experimental results show that the new descriptor is more robust and distinctive, and the proposed copy detection scheme using this descriptor can substantially enhance the accuracy and recall of copy detection and lower the false positives and ambiguities.