Is it legal to copy, modify and use code from a Bitbucket public repository?

Question

Hi, I have found a project in one of the public repository very helpful and I would like to fork the project, make some changes and use with my proprietary software. Please help me to know if this legal with Bitbucket? I could not find any license information in that repo or anywhere talking about the code usage. I am new to Bitbucket.

Appreciate if anyone can guide me on the topic.

ajithmohann · Answer

Thanks Ana. This information definitely helps. Unfortunately I couldn't find any contact information about the authors in the Bitbucket site/repo page. I am not sure how to reach out to those people.

- Ajith

Ana Retamal · Answer

Hi Ajith! Code without an explicit license is protected by copyright and is by default All Rights Reserved. The person or people who wrote the code are protected as such. Any time you're using software you didn't write, licensing should be considered and abided.

Thus, if you cannot find any license information, then you cannot copy or modify it for any reason other than personal use.

For more information I recommend you having a look at https://choosealicense.com/no-license/. As there's no license stating the opposite in that repository either, you can also try contacting the owner as he might be open to reach some kind of agreement :)

Hope this helps!

Ana