CodeScreener for Identifying Software Copying

CodeScreener Overview

CodeScreener is a software service, offering the most complete comparison analysis of software in either binary or source form. CodeScreener measures the correlation between two codebases to identify plagiarism.

Using CodeScreener

Identifying Plagiarism

Finding correlation between the source code files for two different programs does not necessarily mean the code was plagiarized. In fact there are exactly six reasons for correlation between programs.

• Same third-party code in both programs
• Use of the same code generation tools
• Common algorithms known and used by many programmers
• Code written by the same author
• Commonly used identifier names (e.g. result, index…)
• Copied/plagiarized code

As the developer of at least one of the code bases you have analyzed, you should be able to answer whether the first three bullets apply to your code. The fourth bullet is there as a reminder that if the same programmer writes two different programs there will be a good chance of seeing correlation between the two programs. The fifth bullet can be filtered by using the filter common identifiers option when you request your CodeMatch Report (for source code analysis) or BitMatch Report (for binary code analysis). Once you have accounted for the first 5 bullets then any correlation greater than 0 is indication of copied code. more info ...