CopySpider

Checking the authenticity of what others or we write are of great importance in the academic and the creative worlds, for instance.

CopySpider is a simple tool design to make checking for plagiarism a simple and efficient task. It can compare the “original” document with any other documents stored either locally or in the Web. For the latter, the program combines various search engines to produce the most accurate results possible.

It is important to note that CopySpider does not perform a word-by-word comparison of all the text to be analyzed. The program uses a “fingerprinting” solution, which extracts a number of relevant chunks of text that are then compared to the documents selected, either locally or in the Web. Those documents with similarities (or exact coincidences) with the source file are labeled as “candidates” that will be downloaded and stored in memory for a second and definitive analysis (collusion analysis, as CopySpider calls it). By combining the conclusions of both analysis, the program arrives at a final report, which provides you with color-coded snippets of where the coincidences were found, as well as links to all the candidates, so that you can check the similarities for yourself.

The final report is delivered as an HTML document that opens on your selected browser and can be exported in various ways so that you can use it as proof of the level of originality of, say, your thesis or the article you’re sending for review.

CopySpider comes in two versions – a free one, which can analyze one file at a time when comparing it to documents in the Web (for local comparison the program will ask you to select two documents). If you need to analyze more than one file in one single operation, you are kindly advised to upgrade to a Professional version. The free download, though, will suffice most users’ personal needs.