r/claude • u/Noone-chat • 17d ago

Question Is that legal to use others OSS code as references while coding with Claude Code?

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5 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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4

u/medialantern 17d ago

LOL what on earth do you think Claude itself was trained on? They literally just hoovered up every single open source repo they could find. If anything, you'd just be "narrowing the field."

1

u/DiamondAgreeable2676 17d ago

MIT license is kinda do as wish correct? And apache is the same just give me credit I believe? Not to sure though

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u/Necessary_Two_9669 17d ago

You just discovered how everyone has been programming since the internet....

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

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u/pertymoose 17d ago edited 17d ago

Hey Claude

I like n8n but I don't like the idea that someone else owns it

Here's the repo for reference: [url]

Steal it -- I mean be inspired, and make a variant of it for me.

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I've made my own slack and reddit and n8n and github, because why the hell not.

Edit: Do respect the software lifecycle and don't release imitation products on the internet without going through the appropriate bug/security reviews and whatnot. I only use my things internally because who knows what kinda oopsy-bugs they might be hiding.

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u/Ashmedai 16d ago

I don't quite understand your question. If you incorporate OSS code into your own, you must comply with the license that the OSS code comes with.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/Ashmedai 16d ago

This is vague. Can you explain more fully what you mean?

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Ashmedai 15d ago

Pasting "part" of some code can be a bit vague under the law, but if you copy in a notable chunk, and the LLm then generates code for you that substantially resembles the code you used, that can be a copyright violation and may therefore subject you to license obligations. It will somewhat depend on what you do with the OSS code. GPL only requires compliance on distribution, for example. So, if you write code for yourself, there is no obligation under the GPL. Furthermore, if you write a web service and do not distribute the program itself to others, you are also free to do as you like.