Copy paste and copyright. Problem?

Question

in a real world, do you tend to copy others code?
is that problem?
I ask this because, practicing I find with this problem
I would like to know if it will be same?

Answer 1

If someone posts code to the public, then normally it's free to use or they'll have some sort of copyright/license information in regard to their code. Regardless of if it's free or not, it's good practice to give proper credit to the works of others. So make sure you include the license information in your code, and the proper copyright credit to the original.

It's not always necessary to reinvent the wheel, especially when time/money is on the table. Many times we'll use frameworks, snippets, third-party addons, etc... from others and combine it with our own code. However, when you do that, you don't pretend that you wrote it. Just like if you were writing a report, you properly cite where you obtain the code and include the copyright information with that. Just like other copyright stuff, it's up to the individual to give you permission, otherwise it's plagiarism.

As Schindlabua mentioned, it's an excellent way of learning from others and seeing how they went about resolving problems. Then you can use what you learned and create your -own- code that solves your problem. It's not always necessary to copy/paste. Some of the most useful things I've learned in programming came from learning from others. There is so many ways to go about the same problem, so always take into consideration other perspectives and means of going about something. You may or may not use it, but it's good to know how to do things in various ways and then you'll be prepared for various situations.

Answer 2

When I run into a problem and somebody in a forum has a 10 line solution I will copy it, yeah (and usually adapt it so it fits into my codebase). But
- the guy has posted it on a forum specifically to help others
- it's ten lines of code so nobody cares

Sometimes I will also peek into other peoples codebases to see how they solved a problem. But you can't really copy any code, because refactoring it so it fits into your codebase is slower than writing it from scratch. It's useful to get ideas though.

If you plan to use other people's code on a larger scale, they will usually have licences attached to it which tell you what you are and aren't allowed to do.

Answer 3

thank you... and I had a problem with local storage
wanted to add to list, I copy it in code it well but by myself nothing works