Sage-Tips

Are you allowed to copy code?

It is never ok to copy and paste code from an open source project directly into your proprietary code. Don’t do it. Not only does copying and pasting code put your company (and perhaps your job) at risk, but it’s not leveraging the benefits that come with using open source code.

Is it ethical to copy code?

B) Normal Case: You keep a copy of your work and designs so you can reuse the ideas and perhaps even snippets of code. Unless the company in question has open sourced their code and allows anyone to use it under some kind of a BSD-like license, you have absolutely no right to use that code or IP.

Should you comment your code?

Good comments compliment your code, while bad ones pull readers away from the main points. Before putting any comments, ask yourself whether it would serve any purposes rather than distract people from comprehending your program. Good codes have rhythm while mediocre codes have a lot of pauses.

Is it legal to steal code?

While that is true, copyright law is actually broader in its coverage. Theft of software also constitutes copyright infringement. As far as the law is concerned, code is no different from prose or paint. These generally begin with telling the infringer to stop the infringing activity and/or to pay for the infringement.

Is it illegal to plagiarize code?

Most already know that plagiarism is an ethical infraction and a violation of your school or workplace’s honor code. The most obvious way that a plagiarism can become a legal issue is copyright infringement. Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the creator of an original work.

How often do programmers copy code?

Code once, run millions of times Depending on who you ask, as little as 5-10\% or as much as much as 7-23\% of code is cloned from somewhere else. Whether these clones are good or bad is up for debate. Regardless of the exact amount, code cloning is extremely common.

When should you comment a code?

Commenting is best done before actually writing the code for your program. Comments are specially marked lines of text in the program that are not evaluated. There are usually two syntactic ways to comment.

Why you should copy code?

Copying code is not really plagiarism. The developers put it up for the express purpose that it be copied and reused. Once you understand it, you’ll modify it and shape it to fit your own original code, and perhaps you’ll post some of your own to pay it forward.

Is stealing code bad?

The core of it, the quirks, all of it become a seamless part of your own code. If you could write it again from memory, that’s a sign a good theft; a reworking that has left you with something more than a clone, with something original. So yes, steal code. Take it, understand it, and implement it in your own projects.