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I'm a student at a US college, and I've been assigned a programming project to complete on my own. I wrote a program to solve a somewhat complex problem, and I'd like to release it under an open-source license so that others can use it and learn from it. However, I'm not entirely sure to whom the code's copyright belongs. The class' syllabus says nothing about the ownership of code produced for the class, but I don't want to take any chances.
Do I own the code?
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You may be able to modify it for yourself, though some licenses prevent reverse engineering and you may have difficulty with that, though de minims may come into play. Distributing a modification or instructions for modification however may get you into trouble.
Literally, the person who puts their fingers on the keyboard and types out a line of software code is the “author” and owns the copyright to the code. A copyright is created by federal law and affords six (6) specific rights to the owner of a “work”.
Is the code copyrighted? Almost certainly yes. Under copyright law, source code is a literary work (like a book). And, just like any other writing, it is immediately copyrighted regardless of the author registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Common Law In general, the author of content owns the copyright. In the case of a software developer, it's the person physically typing on the key board to create the code. An exception occurs under the “Work for Hire” doctrine where the work is developed by an employee with the scope of their employment.
If nothing is stated by the school that you signed and agreed to...copyright defaults to you, the author.
When you're paid it's a different set of rules - Look in the comments of this answer for some excellent resources from Stephen C and outis. With anything legal it's safest to get an opinion from the experts, in this case a lawyer. (Always a good idea actually, water pipes broken? call a plumber)
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IANAL, I would assume it should be specified in University policies.
For instance, University Policy Office of University of California specifies Copyright Ownership Policy
This Policy is intended to embody the spirit of academic tradition, which provides copyright ownership to faculty for their scholarly and aesthetic copyrighted works, and is otherwise consistent with the United States Copyright Law, which provides the University ownership of its employment-related works
and such it is clarified to whom such policy applies, for example ucop.edu says:
This Policy applies to University employees, students, and other persons or entities using designated University facilities
Now, regarding student work, it specifies as follows:
Ownership of copyrights to student works shall reside with the originator.
where originator is also clearly defined:
One who produces a work by his or her own intellectual labor.
Given this example, I would ask your office of your university for presenting you with such policy document. If no document is available, I think you need to refer to your government law, but no policy shall mean copyright belongs inherently to you.
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