This sounds like an interesting pre-condition research project then, as an inversion of 'keeping to the coding standards'.
Take a set of source code repositories and determine whether all contribution are bellow or above the threshold of similarity. Something with self-organisation, perhaps, and then comparing number of clusters with number of actual developers.
Personal blog: http://blog.outerthoughts.com/ Research group: http://www.clt.mq.edu.au/Research/ Hmm.
Regards,
Alex.