Nature of Various Software Forensic Approaches
The previous chapters mainly dealt with the what, why and how of the forensics of copyright infringement. The role of authorship identification methods in this forensic area was also discussed. From this chapter onwards, the discussion is more focused on the other more formalized procedural aspects of software copyright infringement forensics which directly address the forensic activities of the technical expert, the copyright laws as well as the judiciary.
Although the authorship identification methods, discussed in chapter 5, can be used as tests for establishing copyright infringement, they require author profiles of the two sets of software, are more mathematical by nature and not completely in tune in the existing copyright laws across the world. Unlike authorship identification methods, copyright infringement investigation methods check whether there is so-called “substantial similarity” between the protectable elements of both the defendant’s work as well as the plaintiff’s work. These latter methods differ from the former in that they are not mathematical in nature and they do not require information on author profile to establish copyright infringement. Instead, they establish the infringement or violation of copyrighted ideas and expressions along the copyright laws of the respective country by physically comparing two sets of software. This chapter tries to explain the procedural aspects of the copyright infringement investigation with the AFC test.