When you get finished, you realize you have a pretty good script and maybe doesn't look very much at all like what you started with. It may even be good enough that other people might even pay for it. If you look deeply enough, though, there are still some remnants of the original.
Is it yours? Is it the author of the original script's? Even if you decide to just give it away for free, do you risk someone recognizing where it came from and accusing you of code-jacking? Do you contact the original author for permission? What if he says no or wants more than his share of the credit? Maybe it's a fine line, but what criteria should be used to judge?
If the author doesnt give any conditions, puts it on the web and then you alter it to fit your needs then I dont see much problem in claiming it as "your script". I dont see that as much different from basing a script on something you saw (e.g) in a book on how to program.
Such is the nature of Perl (its general bearing towards open source), there aren't a lot of scripts out there that are truly original. Most scripts borrow bits and pieces from others - I know I have standard routines that I use all the time, I can't remember where I orginally got them from or if I wrote them myself.
Also, many scripts use modules that have been written by other programmers - so if my code just glues together a few modules, who's script is it then?
For me, the dividing line is in the results of the script, not in the code. If I use a large amount of your code but just alter the cosmetics of the output, it's still your code. If you use mine as a basis to build something that fulfills an extended function that the original can't fulfill, then it becomes your script.
(But that line might move if I find someone charging for a descendent of one of my scripts though ;)
The script does a basic function (mailing list in my case), but I've added lots of little configuration "nicities " to it. Basically added user friendly features and lots of cosmetic changes. I ended up doing alot of cut-and-paste for the main functions from the original script. The script had no copyright info or GPL and was available for free downloading
I DID think about adding it to my site for free download, just for the expanded content/possible traffic, but I don't want some jerk coming along claiming I ripped them off, so I guess I'll just keep it to myself for now.
It just got me wondering because writing script naturally seems to lend itself to the business of keeping little modules around to use in all sorts of things. So where does one draw the line?
