If you take the code without securing some rights to it, and succeed in making money out of it somehow, you can be absolutely and positively sure that somebody else and their lawyer (or lawyers) will come out of the woodwork claiming that they own it, or you infringed their copyright or patent.
The more money, or money making potential, others see in the code, the flimsier the ownership claims will be.
Secure the rights to the code now before you invest any time or cash in it. It will be too late to do so after your success is written up in Slashdot and "Fortune".
Slashdot Mirror
If you take the code without securing some rights to it, and succeed in making money out of it somehow, you can be absolutely and positively sure that somebody else and their lawyer (or lawyers) will come out of the woodwork claiming that they own it, or you infringed their copyright or patent. The more money, or money making potential, others see in the code, the flimsier the ownership claims will be. Secure the rights to the code now before you invest any time or cash in it. It will be too late to do so after your success is written up in Slashdot and "Fortune".