Copyrighting Code

Yup, just put "@copyright 3dmodelerguy" in the comments, and thats legally binding, if I recall correctly.

Copyrighting is easy, its enforcing/defending it that is another story...

You automatically have copyright everything you post online, whether you put a disclaimer or not. If someone uses code they find on the internet without seeking and getting permission then they are violating copyright. If you want to make it easier for people to track you down to obtain that permission, include that info in the source.

Nearly every major country in the world, all of them that really matter for this discussion, have agreed to some common IP laws.


Everything has automatic copyright protection the moment it is created or stored. You do not need a notice. You do not need to register it. You do not need to do anything. It is instantly and automatically protected nearly everywhere on the globe.

The automatic copyright protection covers unauthorized duplicate distribution, creation of derivative works, public performance, and public display.


But.... If you want to enforce your copyrights in the courts, nations are allowed to have some formal registration system. If you want to sue somebody you may need to register the copyright (it is very cheap) before taking them to court (very expensive).

You own a copyright to everything you create, no need to add a notice to it for legal reasons.

Adding a notice is useful for helping people know who is the author (so they can ask for permission). By default, nobody can use code you provide (except, of course, for simply reading it), so you have to give permissions to do other things. This happens by granting licenses to other people to use, modify, redistribute, compile, and so on.

Certain websites have terms of service, with which you agree, which state that you either give up your copyright, or grant these websites a permanent license to use and redistribute the content.

What the others said.

But you should add a copyright notice anyways, just in case you really end up in court and must prove that you were the first one to write that piece of code. The copyright itself is not a proof, of course, but many countries accept web.archive.org as part of the evidence. So make it so that it will be indexed there (basically by having some google results on your resource).