copyright open-source-software
Must I always ask permission if I use code someone other wrote?
<p>I was told that it might be useful to publish something on Github to get a job. I was wondering if there are any copyright issues here:</p>

<p>Suppose I got an idea of a small program. I do it mostly by my own but I found some good functions from Github or some discussion forum. Author of those functions have not said anything about the lisences of the code. Is it legal to publish the program I made in Github if there are any code that is available from the Internet but author has not said anything about its lisence or copyrights?</p>

<p>Do the lawyers judge that of course I am guilty as there is code someone other wrote, they have copyright to it, and there is no permission to use it, or do they think that it would be weird to bully people by posting code to the Internet that nobody can use?</p>

<p>I'm from Finland.</p>

<h2>Yes</h2>

<p>That is very simple - copyright is an exclusive right that starts automatically with the creation of a copyrightable work.</p>

<p>The default situation is that the author has an exclusive rights to make copies of the work and derivative works.</p>

<p>If the code is published somewhere by the author but the author has not said anything about its licence or copyrights, then the default situation applies - you need permission and you don't have it, so it's not legal for you to distribute their copyrighted works. <em>They</em> have the right to just publish it somewhere, others don't.</p>

<p>If you try to contact the author and they don't say anything and ignore you, then the default situation applies - you need permission and you don't have it, so it's not legal for you to distribute their copyrighted works.</p>

<p>If it's impossible to find the author (e.g. I have certain cases with literary works where it's not clear who inherited the rights after the author died), then the default situation applies - you need permission and you don't have it, so it's not legal for you to distribute their copyrighted works.</p>

<p>That being said, certain forms of reuse (recreating ideas, learning from them, etc) would not be a copyright violation. But in general the situation with the author not saying anything is almost the same as the author explicitly stating "all rights reserved, you're not allowed to do anything, violators will be shot" - some specific uses are allowed even against author's wishes (e.g. 'fair use' clauses) but everything that needs their permission really does need their explicit permission.</p>
