How to Deal With Stolen Code? 799
greenrom writes "I work for a small company as a software developer. While investigating a bug in one of our products, I found source code on a website that was nearly identical to code used in our product. Even the comments were the same. It's obvious that a developer at our company found some useful code on the web and copied it. The original author didn't attach any particular license to the code. It's just 200 lines of code the author posted in a forum. Is it legitimate to use source code that's publicly available but doesn't fall under any particular license? If not, what's the best way to deal with this kind of situation? Since I'm now the only person working on this code, there's no practical way to report the situation confidentially. I'm new to the company, and the developer who copied the code is the project lead. Reporting him to management doesn't seem like a good career move. I could rewrite the copied code without reporting him, but since the product is very close to release it would be difficult to make a significant change without providing some justification."
I can help (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:5, Funny)
Appropriate Quote (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder... (Score:2, Funny)
IANAL (Score:5, Funny)
I shall copyright... (Score:2, Funny)
hah you will all be theives from just reading this post!
Or maybe there is something more to a copyright issue than just any code snippet.
Hmm.
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:5, Funny)
Good to hear (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:5, Funny)
Or should we just start making Xerox copies of the zombie survival guide?
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:3, Funny)
They're called photocopies, you trademark infringer!
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:5, Funny)
Step Two: Do not bite driver
Step Three: Tell Final Destination to Driver
Step Four: Do not nibble on driver
Step Four 1/2: Go to Bookstore
Step Five: Exit Vehicle after biting driver (Zombies don't pay)
Step Six: Find book in bookstore
Step Six 4/5: Take book without paying. See Step Five.
Step Seven: Bite other patrons as desired, being careful to avoid anyone with a knife or anyone standing in the Military History section. Such patrons may already know how to kill Zombies and should be avoided.
Step Eight: Shamble home, avoiding law enforcement officers and other armed humans.
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:3, Funny)
Unless, of course, one KLOC means 1024 LOC.
Reverse it.. act niave... and inform management... (Score:5, Funny)
Then let them figure out the truth, and get indignant with your boss.
A sleazy thing to do to a sleazy guy
Storm
p.s. The correct answer is to get your boss and his in a room, and explain the situation. And more than likely you'll be stuck re-coding it. And your boss will hate your guts, his boss will be cranky with both of you. But it would be the right way to handle the situation.
On Discworld at least (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:2, Funny)
Re:OT: Burning money (Score:2, Funny)
Me too.
I'm always happy to buy cheap gear built by underpaid Americans in sweatshops.
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:3, Funny)
The HR dept told them to stop for H&S reasons.
Difference in Mindset (Score:1, Funny)
For instance if you wanted to build an airplane you would first have to pay an idea license fee to: Leonardo da Vinci Idea Holdings, Galileo Gravity Institute, the Newton Center for Motion, the Entreprise de Rozier-d'Arlandes, Das Swedenborg Unternehmen, Cayley Corp, Penaud Inc, Wnk Works, the Royal Aeronautical Society, Otto Air, Percy's Planes, Chanute's Chutes, Mozhaysky's Motorplanes, Zeppelin Aeronautical, Langley Aircraft, Manly Motors, Wright Fliers, Curtis Aviation, Santos-Dumont Dirigibles, etc, etc, etc.
Unfortunately there are others that think ideas should be bought and sold like cattle. The cattle people have this bizarre idea that if you get a piece of paper that says you thought of something first, regardless of whether you did or not, you have some kind of exclusive right to that idea; no one is allowed to think the idea up after you.
That kind of thinking is evil.
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Uhhhhh (Score:1, Funny)
>Most of TCP/IP stack both in Novell and MS Windows is from BSD code.
Do YOU have any link to support your claim?