If you have a research idea relating to code analysis, and you can use the SAFE tools, let us know. If your proposal passes our review process you’ll get free licenses to our tools, free support, and help getting your results published.

The precise language that legally defines a trade secret varies by jurisdiction, as do the particular types of information that are subject to trade secret protection. In the United States, different states have different trade secret laws. Most states have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and those that don’t, have laws that only differ by subtle differences.

Copyrights protect expressions of ideas, but not the ideas themselves. Software can be reverse engineered to learn the ideas it embodies without violating the copyright, as long as the code is not copied and used commercially. The first lawsuit verdict that enforced this idea was Atari Games v. Nintendo in September 1992.

First, a copyright exists at the moment of creation. In other words, a work does not need to be published to have a copyright. The copyright does not need to be registered with the U.S. Copyright office. It is simply a right given to the person who created the work. The advantage of registering a copyright with the government is that you then have an official document proving your ownership, making it easier to win in court against someone who attempts to use your creation without your permission.

Previous methods of measuring code involve counting lines of code. We realized that we could use CodeDiff and FileCount to compare lines of code to find the number of lines of code that continue from one version to another, the number of lines of code that are changed, and the number of lines of code that are added. Plugging these values into a well-defined spreadsheet allow you to graph this measure of changing lines of code (“CLOC”) over time.