How do you open-source code without letting it get stolen?

[Poet129]

Exactly as the title asks.

[jj9987]

Define "stolen". What are you trying to protect it from?

There are a number of licenses that you can apply to your source-code.

[minibois]

1 minute ago, Poet129 said:

How do you open-source code without letting it get stolen?

Define 'stolen'?

 

Because - as open source works - people can download the code for free, so I suppose you are not specifically talking about it just getting downloaded. You are probably talking about people downloading the code (possibly making changes) and publishing it as their own, right?

 

Take a look at the different licenses you could use for your code. GNU, Creative Commons, etc.

https://opensource.org/licenses

https://creativecommons.org/

 

Creative Commons (CC) may not be what you're going for - as there are numerous other license specifically for software - but it is the easiest to give out some examples.

For example, you can use CC's different licenses for different purposes:

 

Maybe you want people to be able to freely share your software, but don't want them to use it for commercial use. Something like CC BY-NC-SA works for that.

Maybe you want people to use it for commercial purposes, but not change it; CC BY-ND works for that.

 

Keep in mind people - when republishing your by CC licenses software (assuming the license allows for that) - can change the license, but as far as I know, they can only republish the software under a more strict license.

 

So just think about what you want or don't want people to do with your software and based on those requirements, you can choose the license best suited for your software.

[Poet129]

Just now, jj9987 said:

Define "stolen". What are you trying to protect it from?

There are a number of licenses that you can apply to your source-code.

Stolen as in someone else names has the "owner" and no mention of your work.

[WereCatf]

9 minutes ago, Poet129 said:

How do you open-source code without letting it get stolen?

You don't. You'll just have to hope other people will respect you enough to give you credit, there is no way of stopping them from ignoring you and doing whatever they like with the code.

[riklaunim]

14 minutes ago, Poet129 said:

Stolen as in someone else names has the "owner" and no mention of your work.

If they do so then they break the license and you can take legal actions against them.

[Sauron]

42 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

You don't. You'll just have to hope other people will respect you enough to give you credit, there is no way of stopping them from ignoring you and doing whatever they like with the code.

That's not true, just because everyone can see the code doesn't mean you don't have the rights to it. You can choose to forego those rights by using a license like MIT but you don't have to. If you publish it with no attached license and people use it without crediting you you could theoretically sue them.

[WereCatf]

13 minutes ago, Sauron said:

That's not true, just because everyone can see the code doesn't mean you don't have the rights to it.

Owning the copyrights to the code does not in any way or form stop someone from just copying your code and using it. A copyright license does not prevent anyone from stealing the code -- it literally only applies to people who choose to honour it!

[Sauron]

33 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Owning the copyrights to the code does not in any way or form stop someone from just copying your code and using it. A copyright license does not prevent anyone from stealing the code -- it literally only applies to people who choose to honour it!

That may be different where you live but in most places that's not the case, you own what you write so long as you can prove you wrote it first. Licenses are not a suggestion, they are binding conditions you must honor in order to use the code. If you fork, say, Linux, you MUST abide to the terms of the GPL v2 and release your changes under the same license. If you don't, Linus Torvalds can (and will) sue you. There are products where the source is available for free but that you can't legally modify for your own use or redistribute, e.g. the source code for Darwin.

 

Of course one could use the code and hope you don't find out, but if you do find out then you can sue.

 

You may be confusing this with a EULA.

[WereCatf]

43 minutes ago, Sauron said:

You may be confusing this with a EULA

No, you're not reading what I said: none of that shit stops someone from copying your code and using it. If you put your code somewhere publicly like e.g. on Github, literally anyone can grab it from there. Github doesn't verify whether you have any intention of following the copyright-laws or not and doesn't stop you from downloading the code.

 

I did NOT even once say that you'd magically cease to own the copyright to your code, I said that it won't stop someone from copying your code and using it. A copyright-license isn't a magical thing that stops someone from downloading and using your code, just like e.g. red lights won't stop someone from driving through them anyways.

[Sauron]

18 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

No, you're not reading what I said: none of that shit stops someone from copying your code and using it. If you put your code somewhere publicly like e.g. on Github, literally anyone can grab it from there. Github doesn't verify whether you have any intention of following the copyright-laws or not and doesn't stop you from downloading the code.

 

I did NOT even once say that you'd magically cease to own the copyright to your code, I said that it won't stop someone from copying your code and using it. A copyright-license isn't a magical thing that stops someone from downloading and using your code, just like e.g. red lights won't stop someone from driving through them anyways.

I see, I guess you could say that but I think the potential for legal consequences does count as "stopping". Beyond the point of being able to sue someone for "stealing" it why would one even care after all?

[WereCatf]

Just now, Sauron said:

I see, I guess you could say that but I think the potential for legal consequences does count as "stopping".

Do possible legal consequences stop people from speeding, driving through red lights, driving under influence, stabbing others, robbing people and so on and so forth? No? Yeah, even less so with something as easily copyable and as difficult to find out about as source-code. Also, don't forget that those copyright-laws only apply in countries that have applicable laws to begin with!

 

Even ignoring the above, just try and go after someone for copyright-violation of a software-license as an individual person without corporate-backing and see how far you get.

 

OP's question wasn't about the legality of one violating copyright-laws, it was about stopping someone from stealing the code and thus the point stands: if the code is publicly available, there is no way of stopping such.