I found some code on the web. The web page doesn't make any mention of a license, and the download doesn't make any mention of a license. What are the license implications of using that code in the US? Is there such a thing as an implicit license?
I edited the question to specify the US.
RickDT
2009-07-28 17:14:29
+5
A:
If the code doesn't have a license, it is still copyright by it's author, which means you cannot use nor publish it without their express permission [assuming you're in the U.S. and the code is from a country we're treaty obligated to enforce copyright protections for].
Chris Kaminski
2009-07-27 21:13:34
I'm not aware of any countries in which copyright is not automatic (wasn't it in Berne treaty?).
Pavel Minaev
2009-07-27 21:15:05
@Eric, the ones that are signatories to the berne convention anyway. Which is most of them :)
bdonlan
2009-07-27 21:15:17
Probably not, but enough that I don't bother. There's enough publicly licensed, public-domain, adware-licensed code out there that I just don't deal with ambiguities.
Chris Kaminski
2009-07-27 21:16:29
A:
IANAL, but I think it depends on local copyright laws. I have a feeling that if it gets taken to court, the winner will largely depend on the deepness of your respective wallets.
thedz
2009-07-27 21:13:45
+7
A:
There's no such thing as an implicit license. A code is implicitly copyrighted the moment it is written, and, by default, you have no legal right to redistribute it, or produce derived works from it (of course, the author might not mind, but that's another matter entirely). In other words, lack of license is roughly the same as "look but don't touch" license.
Pavel Minaev
2009-07-27 21:14:29
There is an implicit license--the US copyright code. It says you can't use it.
Loren Pechtel
2009-07-27 21:27:57