17.17 Copying-Access and Substantial Similarity is a copyright infringement doctrine that provides a two-pronged test to determine whether an alleged infringed has violated the copyright of another. The two prongs of the test are (1) copying-access and (2) substantial similarity. The copying-access prong requires that the alleged infringed had access to the copyrighted work and that the alleged infringed copied from that work. The substantial similarity prong requires that the alleged infringed's work is substantially similar to the protected elements of the copyrighted work. If both prongs are met, the alleged infringed has likely violated the copyright of the original author.