Hello Friends

I have a php script.
I have checked for copyright of the same but couldn't find any legal information.
I am planning to make drastic changes to the script to make a new one.
So Can I get the copyright rights for the same?

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Member Avatar for diafol

That's a tricky one. We all base our codes on stuff we learn from books, tutorials, help from forums etc. When one is sufficiently proficient, "original code" may be possible.

If you're producing 'drastically different' code from the original, but have used it as a 'resource' / 'idea' / 'starting point', you may be OK. Have you contacted the author to check whether this would be OK? Omission of the copyright symbol etc, on a website does not, *as far as I know* mean that there is no copyright. Any code written by the author and published online has "implied" copyright. It is conceivable that the website hosting the code has done so improperly or without the consent of the original author.

Authors' copyright allows them the right to prohibit you from reproducing, copying and adapting their work.

I'm not in the business, so I'm sure some of the professionals on this forum could give you better advice. Anyone?

I disagree. What your describing is you get a book written in french then translate it to english and have a uncopywrited work. Obviously that isn't how it works in the real world nor is it how it works in programming languages. So clearly changing it to another programing language with the same concepts and principles will make it illegal. The only thing in this world that is not copywrited is ideas. So therefore you may copy ones idea but how you go about doing that idea must be different or original. So in this case you have some open source or purchased code and you want to adapt it to your project, the only way you can really do it is study the code for the ideas then write your own version based on those ideas. Hope that helps as I have read all about the australian copywrite laws.

That's a tricky one. We all base our codes on stuff we learn from books, tutorials, help from forums etc. When one is sufficiently proficient, "original code" may be possible.

If you're producing 'drastically different' code from the original, but have used it as a 'resource' / 'idea' / 'starting point', you may be OK. Have you contacted the author to check whether this would be OK? Omission of the copyright symbol etc, on a website does not, *as far as I know* mean that there is no copyright. Any code written by the author and published online has "implied" copyright. It is conceivable that the website hosting the code has done so improperly or without the consent of the original author.

Authors' copyright allows them the right to prohibit you from reproducing, copying and adapting their work.

I'm not in the business, so I'm sure some of the professionals on this forum could give you better advice. Anyone?

commented: Interesting point. +6

Hope that helps as I have read all about the australian copywrite laws.

Every country has its own copyright laws. My question is, Is there a general set of copyright rules/laws [something like, International Copyright laws ?] to which all the countries respond to ?

Member Avatar for diafol

@cwarn

You say you disagree, but from reading your post, you say the same:

1. I say that you can't copy/reproduce/ADAPT another's work.
2. You can use somebody's IDEA.

Have I misunderstood? I admit to being really naive w.r.t this and always err on the side of caution. I only ever use code that is open and use it with the same licence from which the original code originated (as imposed by the terms of use).

@cwarn

You say you disagree, but from reading your post, you say the same:

1. I say that you can't copy/reproduce/ADAPT another's work.
2. You can use somebody's IDEA.

Have I misunderstood? I admit to being really naive w.r.t this and always err on the side of caution. I only ever use code that is open and use it with the same licence from which the original code originated (as imposed by the terms of use).

Those two points are correct. And the adapting work agreement can vary depending on license. Some licenses will allow you to adapt while others wont. But many licenses don't allow you to adapt.

Member Avatar for diafol

Thanks, understood.

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