Does Un copyrighted software or code fall automatically under copyright? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

What is the “default” software license? (8 answers)

Closed 5 years ago.

A programming tutorial, code, software anything that doesn't have a copyright notice or a license ,is it automatically copyrighted to the author ? or its the same as something under public domain or something else ? and does this differ from country to another as some terms differ lets say from US to Australia, and what terms should i follow my country's or the authors ?

Yes i know this is not a website for law things , i asked this on Meta SE and someone suggested that here is the best place for anything that has to do with license about code or software ...

Answer 1

Yes, at least in the US and in all EU member states, copyright exists by default and rights to use the work are automatically reserved either to its author or their employer (if the work is written as part of their obligations to the employer).

In the specific case of examples in a text book, tutorial, or other similar document, you could argue (unless the author states otherwise) that they were clearly intended to be copied, and that's probably acceptable, but in most other circumstances you have no right to use code someone else wrote without them granting you a license of some kind.

Answer 2

Creative works, like books, software, images, etc., are always protected by copyright, even if there is no explicit claim to copyright on them.
The default copyright "license" is that only the original author has the right to distribute and/or modify the work.

If something can be released into the public domain depends on the jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions don't recognize the concept of public domain, or allow works only to fall to the public domain after the copyright expires (typically 70 years after the death of the author).
If you wish to dedicate something you created to the public domain, you can use the Creative Commons CC0 dedication. In jurisdictions that don't allow dedication to the public domain, this automatically becomes a very lax license.