Are there any ready-made license blocks for proprietary code?
I have some part-completed code. Before I send it to anyone, I'd like to add a license block to the top of each file. I can find plenty of blocks for liberal licenses such as the MPL boilerplate, but I'd like something a little more restrictive, at least for now.
Basically, I want to say "this is copyright me, it's mine, don't you dare fiddle". Then, once I'm happy I could change it something more liberal later.
What's the point of sending it to people if they aren't allowed to do anything with it? This may sound a little harsh, but I don't really see the point of a license like this. If you are letting people read it, they can, at the very least, gain knowledge from it, and reuse your ideas.
A simple copyright message would probably suffice. The reason you only see licenses for more liberal licensing, is that they grant rights above and beyond that which is granted by copyright. Standard copyright gives just what you are looking for. You maintain ownership, and others are not allowed to reuse or copy your works.
The License you are locking for is called, Copyright ;) To help you find a real license though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_license and http://www.insideria.com/2008/07/open-source-code-licenses-revi.html and http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
I would read that thoroughly!
But remember, you always own your code, no matter what. You just need to be able, to prove that you wrote it and not someone else.
However, remember that a "concept" needs more than a licenese to be protected.
It depends on the situation, but I think this sounds more like a time when you would want a non-disclosure agreement signed before sharing the code. Copyright only protects usage of the code, not the ideas.
As far as protecting the code, a simple copyright is all that is needed.
Copyright (c) 2009 Your_Name_here. All Rights Reserved.