You're not alone. I've got a fair wodge of code on SO and don't really give a crap what people do with it. If I cared tremendously then I wouldn't put it on the internet.
I guess the only exceptions might be:
- if the wodge of code is fairly substantial (how you'd measure that I don't know, but in the words of Potter Stewart - "I'll know it when I see it"); and
- you write a blog post and it's based substantially on my answer and code then a link back to my post would be common courtesy
- you write a book and include my code then attribution might be nice
- you include it in your open source project
I guess it's more as a common courtesy than me being litigious and it's not the end of the world if this doesn't happen.
Personally, for any code I use in my/our own systems based on SO or "found on the internet", I usually add a comment pointing to the source. I do this for two reasons, firstly to provide context or remind myself where it came from, secondly to credit the author.
That said I do understand why SE/SO are trying to come up with a foolproof way of dealing with the legal status of code included in posts [0][1].
I guess the only exceptions might be:
- if the wodge of code is fairly substantial (how you'd measure that I don't know, but in the words of Potter Stewart - "I'll know it when I see it"); and
- you write a blog post and it's based substantially on my answer and code then a link back to my post would be common courtesy
- you write a book and include my code then attribution might be nice
- you include it in your open source project
I guess it's more as a common courtesy than me being litigious and it's not the end of the world if this doesn't happen.
Personally, for any code I use in my/our own systems based on SO or "found on the internet", I usually add a comment pointing to the source. I do this for two reasons, firstly to provide context or remind myself where it came from, secondly to credit the author.
That said I do understand why SE/SO are trying to come up with a foolproof way of dealing with the legal status of code included in posts [0][1].
[0]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/25956/what-is-up-wit...
[1]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12527/do-i-have-to-w...