

Is StackOverflow compatible with non-cc-wiki-compatibly-licensed software? - jed_s
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/12527/do-i-have-to-worry-about-copyright-issues-for-code-posted-on-stackoverflow

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jed_s
According to the footer on every StackOverflow page, all submissions are under
the copyleft cc-wiki with attribution required license. CC licenses are
specifically not recommended for software. (¹)

<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/>
[http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions#C...](http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Can_I_use_a_Creative_Commons_license_for_software.3F)

[Insert favorite legal disclaimers here.] An ultra-conservative/pessimistic
interpretation of the "remix" and "share alike" portions of the cc-wiki
license (yes, just the human-readable summary) would prohibit use of even
ideas expressed on the site without licensing the result under "the same or
similar license" -- imposing restrictions incompatible with many open source
licenses, let alone closed-source development.

Several meta threads at StackOverflow have pointed out this issue, resulting
in a lot of discussion about fair use/excerpts, snippets, re-implementation,
etc.; some users have even begun putting an additional license for their
contributions within their profile.

[http://www.google.com/search?.q=site:meta.stackoverflow.com+...](http://www.google.com/search?.q=site:meta.stackoverflow.com+stack+overflow+code+snippet+license+legality)

< I decided to cut my editorializing />

~Jed

\--

(¹) In order to comply with StackOverflow's attribution requirements, I am
required to indicate that:

1\. This information was pointed out on StackOverflow

2\. Specifically, in the following answer:
[http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/3646/im-worried-
abou...](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/3646/im-worried-about-stack-
overflow-content-licensing/3791#3791)

3\. By StackOverflow user "Mark Harrison",

4\. Whose profile is available at:
<http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/116/mark-harrison>

I may actually be in violation of the attribution requirements due to an
inability to direcly link the StackOverflow user's name to the associated
profile.

<http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/attribution-required/>

