Re: Plagiary problem

[Danny Swarzman <dannys@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>On Mon, 26 Apr 1999, Chen Zhixing wrote:
>
>[SNIP]
>> I was told that another sold program, Family Igo, is similar to the 4th

[SNIP]

Avijit Ghosh wrote:

>due to compiler similarities? (Or reverse training against handtalk?) It
>seems to me that the simplest way to do this is just to allow a 3rd party
>to just look at the source code for the various programs..
>

I would assume from Dr. Chen's postings that he has compared large segments
of his object code to the object code of Hamlet and Family Igo and found
they are identical byte-for-byte.

In 1997, Dr. Chen said that his entry to the Ing tournament was written in
assembly language. I assume that is true of the 4th Fost versions of
Handtalk as well.

If both of the above are true, that would be overwhelming evidence of
plagiarism. The claim could be convincingly demonstrated. I don't know if
Dr. Chen has already given precise information on the list. It would be
helpful if he did. He could say, for example, that starting at byte x in
Handtalk and byte y of Hamlet, there are so many kilobytes identical code.

Comparing source code brings problems of its own. If we're looking for the
type of plagiarism that Dr. Chen alleges,  we don't need to do that.
Comparing object code would suffice.

But what would 'looking at the source code' really mean? What would the
looker do? Do we expect each programmer to submit a Zip disk for a
programmer hired by the organizers to examine? Maybe some would have qualms
about submitting their code. What are we looking for? Source files that are
identical to someone else's? Isn't that really easy to defeat.

There really isn't any way you can prevent someone from reading source code
and getting ideas and applying those ideas in code that looks entirely
different. But you don't need source code to do that. Just follow this list.

If this problem really needs to be resolved, maybe the organizers of
international computer go tournaments have to take some extra time and
expense. The competitors may need to accecpt limitations too. One possible
procedure:

* Each contestant must come equiped with source files and a development
system on some kind of disk.

* Before play begins the organizers make a CD-ROM with the contestant's
sources and the development system used to compile.

* The CD-ROM is used to make an .exe that will be used in the tournament.

* The organizers keep the listings of the directories of source files, the
.exe and data files needed at runtime.

* The CD-ROM is physically stamped by the organizers and returned to the
contestant. The contestant is required to keep the CD-ROM for 3 years to be
presented only in the case of later dispute.

* The .exe and data may not be changed during the tournament.

I realize the last may bother people who like to stay glued to their
computers in the hotel room and miss meals and things.