The work of the published paper is protected by the publisher. The copyright release form does just that -- transfers the copyright from the author to the publisher (i.e. ACM, IEEE, Springer-Verlag, etc.).
As other posters pointed out just pick a license that suits your needs to cover the code. If you are distributing the code online include a LICENSE.txt file or include your chosen license at the header of every source file.
Ridiculous and complicated instructions (such as the famously outrageous instructions by the publishers of "Numerical Recipes in C" http://www.nr.com/com/info-copyright.html, below) will only annoy your fellow academics.
If you are the individual owner of a copy of this book, we hereby authorize you to type into your computer, for your own personal and noncommercial use, one machine-readable copy of each program. You are not authorized to transfer or distribute a machine-readable copy to any other person.
In my experience in the academic world very rarely somebody uses (code, ideas, etc.) without citing. And if that happens you can name-them-and-shame-them.
Slashdot Mirror
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter.
Although not recent (written in 70's) and not an official AI text, it offers some good insights on how minds and computers work.
If you are the individual owner of a copy of this book, we hereby authorize you to type into your computer, for your own personal and noncommercial use, one machine-readable copy of each program. You are not authorized to transfer or distribute a machine-readable copy to any other person.
In my experience in the academic world very rarely somebody uses (code, ideas, etc.) without citing. And if that happens you can name-them-and-shame-them.