Awhile back I posted an article and code to upload files to YouTube. It wasn’t a full example but nonetheless I thought it would give a programmer a healthy leg up if attempting the same thing. An exhaustive search showed nothing of the like on the net so I published it for the world to see.
For the world to see, not for the world to copy and paste to sell for $110 as it’s own.
I was the victim of copytheft. Someone had taken my code line for line and attempted to sell it as their own work. He was caught in the process as the same Google search that produced the code he stole also showed his boss he’s a plagiarist and not a programmer. It would be different if he used my code as the framework for a more functional piece and left me attribution. But this was a line for line copy with my information removed.
Copyright law in the US is fairly clear on the matter. Anything you write down automatically becomes your copyright. Unless you have permission from the author, using it for commercial purposes is illegal.
It’s just something that really chaps me. Any programmer is welcome to use my code to learn from or as a stepping stone to something bigger but not to just blatantly copy and paste it and sell it as your own. If your not sure you can always ask.