Formal Elements and Measures in Software and their Forensic Importance

Abstract

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.