SAFE Online IP Screening Case Study
Shows Similarities Between Code From Zynga and CrowdStar
Online IP Screening offers a proactive
solution for protecting social game's IP
CUPERTINO, CA (January 3, 2011) - Software Analysis
& Forensic Engineering Corporation, the leading
provider of forensic software tools for the detection
of software copyright infringement and trade secret
misappropriation, today announced the release of a case
study of Online IP Screening between Zynga's FarmVille
game and CrowdStar's Happy Aquarium game. The study
shows some interesting correlations between the source
code for the two games, even after eliminating correlation
due to third party code, commonly used identifier names,
automatically generated code, common algorithms, and
common authors.
"One of the challenges for accurate forensic analysis
of software IP is access to source code." said
Bob Zeidman, president of SAFE Corporation. "A
unique characteristic of social games is that the source
code is accessible online because of the technology
used to develop and deliver the games. Using our proprietary
online IP preprocessing tools with CodeSuite, we have
created a service to proactively monitor this kind of
online IP for copyright infringement." He also
notes that these particular source code correlations
do not mean that something nefarious took place, but
rather that further examination should be performed.
According to Neel Chatterjee at Orrick, Herrington
& Sutfcliffe LLP, "IP protection is an important
element of an online game company's business. Monitoring
online infringing activity can present numerous challenges.
A service that proactively monitors such activities
can help companies make sure they are protecting their
rights to compete fairly in a newly emerging space."
SAFE Corporation's Online IP Screening service has
released the case study of social games. The case study
demonstrates the methodology of screening specific games
and presents the results. The summary of these results
is available online.
The full case study is available for download upon request.
SAFE Corporation's Online IP Screening Services are
available on a subscription basis. For more information,
contact sales@safe-corp.com
or call (408) 517-1167.
About SAFE Corporation
SAFE Corporation is the leading provider of software
forensic analysis tools for discovering IP theft, measuring
software IP changes, and measuring software source code
and object code correlation. CodeSuite has been used
in trials involving copyright infringement and trade
secret theft.
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