[thorismud]

Hi.

I was wondering if someone could give me some info on how far copy rights go on code in any kind of program.
i know it s wrong to copy a whole piece of code from one program and use it yourself, but in the end it's still a piece of code intended to have a certain outcome and to get to that outcome you will need that piece of code. wether you write it yourself or copy it from someone else.

why do i ask this.
well on my job, we recently started developing a website. (my boss treats it like a program, not a random website) with a lot of cms included. our goal is to mass sell this product so any customer can buy a website and we have but to click a button for it to go on line. in here the client can fill his own text, upload his own products. and so on.
due to firm secrecy i can't realy tell much more about this but i do know there is a security team working on it to wrap it all up and get most of our code on server side so no one can just come and copy our product.

the thing i wondered is. are they going too far or is it a real treath. can other people just copy our code and make it their own product?

I know this is a complicated law cause the interwebz is kinda international and local laws can't reach everywhere. my company is from belgium but i am interested in USA or UK regulations about this as well.

Not sure if anyone can explain this to me but hey, i could try.
thx in advance.

[vic2pc]

Basically (in short and I am not a lawyer): anything anyone writes is copyrighted. A book, a song, a poem, even computer code. If you use someone else's code in your own product without permission, you can be sued; and vice versa.

[sepala]

Nothing is copyrighted unless you display the copyright symbol

go here for more details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright

[vic2pc]

Originally Posted by sepala

Nothing is copyrighted unless you display the copyright symbol

go here for more details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright

That's specifically for Canada. It probably differs for other countries.

[sepala]

Originally Posted by vic2pc

That's specifically for Canada. It probably differs for other countries.

My apologies. But I am pretty sure nothing is copyrighted without the copyright mark. But as you said, law will differ from country to country

[Keebellah]

If you don't explicitly state that the code is copyright, then you can use it.
If you copy someone's code and put it to use you must mention the source etc.
When you think of selling your code which consists of copied code the you may run into legal issues

[vic2pc]

Originally Posted by United States Government

While use of a copyright notice was once required as a condition of copyright protection, it is now optional.