As a programmer, writing an extensive application can be a pleasurable pain. Writing code line by line, debugging, testing, checking loops, etc; it’s a part of the game. There is a wealth of information for programmers to share insight and code snippets. If you’re like me and get stuck while programming, you go on-line and find some help.
So there you are, your clipboard is filled with goodies and you are ready to implement the code you found on your own project. Is that stealing? Not really, people make their code available to the world by posting them and giving tutorials or whatnot.
However, there are some ethics that go into play. If you are going to use the script, line by line, you should give the writer some credit. I get that you are all exited about finally finding the solution to your program, but if you didn’t take the time to write it yourself, give credit to the person who did.
Websites that offer scripts normally have some commented text at the top of the script indicating legal issues with using their code. The scripts are usually free, so it’s not like they’re being up-tight. Sure it will add a few extra non-functional lines to your application, but if you got some help (line by line), give credit where it’s due. And who knows, hopefully someday someone will steal borrow your code.
