Forensics with the AFC Test

This chapter tries to explain the procedural aspects of the copyright infringement investigation with special attention to the Abstraction – Filtration – Comparison test. Firstly, it situates the AFC test properly in the field (and also in the process) of copyright infringement of software program. Secondly, the chapter concentrates on the basic copyright doctrines and explores how they have been properly incorporated in the 3-phase procedure of the AFC test. The abstraction and the exclusion policies of the test are also explained in the context of the copyright policies of the United States. The chapter goes on to explain the scope of customization and induction of this test into the judiciaries in the rest of the world. This chapter concludes by pointing out the limitations of and further scope for research in this test.

Software Copyright Infringement Forensics and Authorship Analysis

This chapter primarily focuses on an overview of authorship analysis and then explains how authorship analysis can be of help, perhaps in a limited way, in software copyright infringement forensics. The chapter looks into various approaches (which use the elements and measures that have already been discussed in chapter 4) available to establish software authorship. It concludes by pointing out the limitations and the limited uses of various authorship analysis approaches in the investigation of software copyright infringement.

Forensic Expertise and Judicial Expectations

This chapter primarily focuses on recommendations, suggestions, and directives from the legal systems on matters related to investigation of software copyright infringement and then presents them as positive contributory gestures by the legal systems across the world. Samples are taken from various laws, judicial suggestions and recommendations, and legal directives on copyright in order to discuss the ways in which these laws, recommendations, and directives can add credibility to the entire forensic procedure as well as value to the final forensic answers. These samples address judicial recommendations on a variety of software copyright issues such as software authorship, copyright protection of various software elements (including literal and non-literal software parts), the constitution of “substantial part,” the interpretation of software ideas, forensic exclusion policies of various unprotectable elements, “mining,” etc. The chapter concludes stressing the importance of imparting extensive cyber forensic education to judicial officers for making them fit not only to take intelligent judicial decisions but also to put forward wise judicial recommendations on software copyright infringement cases.

Formal Elements and Measures in Software and their Forensic Importance

This chapter introduces various software elements and then explains the forensic utility and importance of these elements. Firstly, the forensic importance of these elements (and also of various metrics and measures based on these elements) are explained in the context of software authorship identification and then in the context of software copyright infringement forensics. Next, the software elements are presented from different perspectives in order to show their different roles in meeting software forensic challenges. Then these elements are differentiated based on their relative importance in software authorship identification and also in software copyright infringement forensics. Finally, the subjective nature of these software elements and their increased dependability on the investigator's skill set are explained. In general, the attempt here is to assess the forensic reliability of these elements and to reiterate that an intelligent scrutiny of these elements is technically vital and forensically necessary to establish software copyright infringement.

Software Copyright Infringement and Litigation

This chapter deals with software copyright infringement litigations. The chapter commences with a mention of the moral and legal rights of individuals, organizations, and institutions to protect their property rights to software and also to seek remedial measures in case of violation of their rights. It then deals with various aspects and elements of evidence along with the procedure and ethics of the collection of evidence, moving further on into the theoretical aspect of the idea-expression dichotomy and its practical implication on the evidential elements, related complications, etc. The chapter then goes on to explain the importance of the selection of forensic test procedures and the legally decisive elements involved in these test procedures in the context of the idea-expression dichotomy of various copyright laws. It concludes by explaining the complications in the forensic reporting.

The Context and Background

This chapter introduces the nature, evolution, and development of cyber (digital) crimes in the context of the modern digital revolution with particular stress on software piracy and copyright infringement. Firstly, it overviews the various forensic implications of cyber criminality in its various forms and goes on to talk about the detection, preservation, and forensic utilisation of digital evidence, as well as its relationship to global cyber legislation. Next, it concentrates on exploring the fields of digital and software forensics and then software piracy as a cyber crime. The chapter then discusses the forensics of the infringement of software copyright, especially in terms of its legal and judicial complexity. Finally, it concludes by explaining how all the various complex issues bear on the crucial role of the cyber forensic consultant experts in the collection, interpretation and presentation of the digital evidence in a manner that is both judicially efficient and convincing.

Thinking Ahead

This chapter presages into the future scope of growth along different dimensions of the current forensic technologies for software copyright infringement investigation. Firstly, it explains how induction of additional software elements in the forensic processes and procedures can make the forensic efforts more reliable. Secondly, it suggests that there should be more initiatives from the software community to find ways to automate most, if not all, of the subjective decisions in these procedures in a legally convincing way. Thirdly, it encourages software forensic researchers to formulate copyright infringement forensic methods that have the lowest error rating. Fourthly, it previews the possibility of the existing software authorship identification methods to emerge in the future as tests to establish copyright infringement. The focus then shifts to the issues involved in customization of (global) software forensic procedures in tune with the (local) copyright laws. The chapter argues that there is scope for further judicial intelligence on deciding what all software elements are protectable and what all are unprotectable. It concludes stressing the need for extensive forensic education for the judiciary and also the pragmatics of bilingual and multilingual discourses between the forensic and the judicial communities.

Forensics with the POSAR Test

This chapter introduces and explores the POSAR test, a recent forensic procedure for establishing software copyright infringement cases. Firstly, there is an overview of the 3-stage, linear sequential AFC test. By introducing the 5-phase, cyclic POSAR test as AFC's logical extension, the chapter then presents the POSAR test in detail in its five different phases and then explains the POSAR test algorithmically for the benefit of forensic practitioners and researchers. The chapter concludes with a juxtaposed comparison of the POSAR and the AFC tests and a discussion on the advantages, disadvantages, and caveats in the use of POSAR, with suggestions for further customization of the POSAR test.

Some Additional Factors for Inclusion in Software Copyright Infringement Forensics

This chapter takes upon itself the task of looking into and discussing the forensic importance of some new features, which are not currently considered important but which need to be included in any forensic procedure or method or approach in software copyright infringement cases. The need to incorporate cyclicality as a new feature is stressed and the forensic roles of two other new features, post piracy modifications and programming blunders, are also discussed here with the ultimate objective of achieving more reliability in the forensic procedure and reporting. It is argued that the incorporation of these new features and their conclusive, corroborative, and supportive role in the expert's report will inevitably make it more convincing to the judiciary.