GNU LibC didn't become MIT licensed just because I traced through it in a StackOverflow answer.

That you wouldn't in your right mind derive from that particular code in your own program isn't the point. It's that having a code excerpt put on StackOverflow is not an instant carte blanche on that code's license.

Others mentioned that regarding Code Review...someone wanting to get feedback on their GPL project may not want to see their code relicensed MIT just because they put up a page or two of a routine. If it was important enough to bother framing up and asking for community feedback about, it may be something they specifically don't want to see adapted and made closed-source somewhere proprietary.

Beyond that...an attribution line in the source and a link to the StackOverflow answer that provided it isn't just good for "following the license", it's good documentation. SE URLs to questions and answers can be shortened down to just the stem, so http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/271080 instead of http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271080/the-mit-license-clarity-on-using-code-on-stack-overflow-and-across-the-stack-e?cb=1. Someone can not only see the reasoning behind why code is the way it is, they can go check up at a later date and find new information or raise new critiques of whether that's the real answer.

I have two competing feelings overall:

• feeling one: If you're the sort of person who has to worry so much about licensing and lawsuits, and have to make sure there's not one bit of GPL'd code in your project (or whatever)...it should be your culture of development that pays the tax on fretting about it. Stallman was Right, FSF/EFF 4eva.

• feeling two: I don't want to answer emails asking if someone can use code I post here, because if I wrote it and posted it inside an answer on this site, I don't care and they can do whatever they want with it.

So I don't really know how that translates into an answer, other than to agree with those saying this is probably not something that should be done unilaterally and on a quick timescale. It may need a more adaptive solution, like a process of pinging a post for a license audit...then on an as-needed basis various factors are gone over.

(e.g. I might in my profile tick the "anything by me is ok for being MIT licensed", and then all that would have to happen would be someone would look and make sure I didn't source the material from elsewhere, and perhaps it could be 'vetted' for license even if I'm not on the site anymore.)

GNU LibC didn't become MIT licensed just because I traced through it in a StackOverflow answer.

That you wouldn't in your right mind derive from that particular code in your own program isn't the point. It's that having a code excerpt put on StackOverflow is not an instant carte blanche on that code's license.

Others mentioned that regarding Code Review...someone wanting to get feedback on their GPL project may not want to see their code relicensed MIT just because they put up a page or two of a routine. If it was important enough to bother framing up and asking for community feedback about, it may be something they specifically don't want to see adapted and made closed-source somewhere proprietary.

Beyond that...an attribution line in the source and a link to the StackOverflow answer that provided it isn't just good for "following the license", it's good documentation. SE URLs to questions and answers can be shortened down to just the stem, so http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/271080 instead of http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271080/the-mit-license-clarity-on-using-code-on-stack-overflow-and-across-the-stack-e?cb=1. Someone can not only see the reasoning behind why code is the way it is, they can go check up at a later date and find new information or raise new critiques of whether that's the real answer.

I have two competing feelings overall:

• feeling one: If you're the sort of person who has to worry so much about licensing and lawsuits, and have to make sure there's not one bit of GPL'd code in your project (or whatever)...it should be your culture of development that pays the tax on fretting about it. Stallman was Right, FSF/EFF 4eva.

• feeling two: I don't want to answer emails asking if someone can use code I post here, because if I wrote it and posted it inside an answer on this site, I don't care and they can do whatever they want with it.

So I don't really know how that translates into an answer, other than to agree with those saying this is probably not something that should be done unilaterally and on a quick timescale. It may need a more adaptive solution, like a process of pinging a post for a license audit...then on an as-needed basis various factors are gone over.

(e.g. I might in my profile tick the "anything by me is ok for being MIT licensed", and then all that would have to happen would be someone would look and make sure I didn't source the material from elsewhere, and perhaps it could be 'vetted' for license even if I'm not on the site anymore.)

GNU LibC didn't become MIT licensed just because I traced through it in a StackOverflow answer.

That you wouldn't in your right mind derive from that particular code in your own program isn't the point. It's that having a code excerpt put on StackOverflow is not an instant carte blanche on that code's license.

Others mentioned that regarding Code Review...someone wanting to get feedback on their GPL project may not want to see their code relicensed MIT just because they put up a page or two of a routine. If it was important enough to bother framing up and asking for community feedback about, it may be something they specifically don't want to see adapted and made closed-source somewhere proprietary.

Beyond that...an attribution line in the source and a link to the StackOverflow answer that provided it isn't just good for "following the license", it's good documentation. SE URLs to questions and answers can be shortened down to just the stem, so http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271080/ instead of http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271080/the-mit-license-clarity-on-using-code-on-stack-overflow-and-across-the-stack-e?cb=1. Someone can not only see the reasoning behind why code is the way it is, they can go check up at a later date and find new information or raise new critiques of whether that's the real answer.

I have two competing feelings overall:

• feeling one: If you're the sort of person who has to worry so much about licensing and lawsuits, and have to make sure there's not one bit of GPL'd code in your project (or whatever)...it should be your culture of development that pays the tax on fretting about it. Stallman was Right, FSF/EFF 4eva.

• feeling two: I don't want to answer emails asking if someone can use code I post here, because if I wrote it and posted it inside an answer on this site, I don't care and they can do whatever they want with it.

So I don't really know how that translates into an answer, other than to agree with those saying this is probably not something that should be done unilaterally and on a quick timescale. It may need a more adaptive solution, like a process of pinging a post for a license audit...then on an as-needed basis various factors are gone over.

(e.g. I might in my profile tick the "anything by me is ok for being MIT licensed", and then all that would have to happen would be someone would look and make sure I didn't source the material from elsewhere, and perhaps it could be 'vetted' for license even if I'm not on the site anymore.)

GNU LibC didn't become MIT licensed just because I traced through it in a StackOverflow answer.

That you wouldn't in your right mind derive from that particular code in your own program isn't the point. It's that having a code excerpt put on StackOverflow is not an instant carte blanche on that code's license.

Others mentioned that regarding Code Review...someone wanting to get feedback on their GPL project may not want to see their code relicensed MIT just because they put up a page or two of a routine. If it was important enough to bother framing up and asking for community feedback about, it may be something they specifically don't want to see adapted and made closed-source somewhere proprietary.

Beyond that...an attribution line in the source and a link to the StackOverflow answer that provided it isn't just good for "following the license", it's good documentation. SE URLs to questions and answers can be shortened down to just the stem, so http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/271080 instead of http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271080/the-mit-license-clarity-on-using-code-on-stack-overflow-and-across-the-stack-e?cb=1. Someone can not only see the reasoning behind why code is the way it is, they can go check up at a later date and find new information or raise new critiques of whether that's the real answer.

I have two competing feelings overall:

• feeling one: If you're the sort of person who has to worry so much about licensing and lawsuits, and have to make sure there's not one bit of GPL'd code in your project (or whatever)...it should be your culture of development that pays the tax on fretting about it. Stallman was Right, FSF/EFF 4eva.

• feeling two: I don't want to answer emails asking if someone can use code I post here, because if I wrote it and posted it inside an answer on this site, I don't care and they can do whatever they want with it.

So I don't really know how that translates into an answer, other than to agree with those saying this is probably not something that should be done unilaterally and on a quick timescale. It may need a more adaptive solution, like a process of pinging a post for a license audit...then on an as-needed basis various factors are gone over.

(e.g. I might in my profile tick the "anything by me is ok for being MIT licensed", and then all that would have to happen would be someone would look and make sure I didn't source the material from elsewhere, and perhaps it could be 'vetted' for license even if I'm not on the site anymore.)