Hello, I have been learning game development and programming in C++ with OpenGL for about a year and a half, and one of the things i've always worried about is whether or not I might end up "plagiarising" while programming. Sure, I haven't released anything yet, and probably won't for YEARS, but i've always been worried about whether or not I could end up "accidentally" plagiarising.

I mean I'm, let me put it this way. My conscience, is pretty much existent, to put it plainley, and I most Certainley do NOT want to create my ultimate "Dream Game", and live my life as a fraud telling everyone that I programmed the game all by myself, even if I plagearized without even knowing it.

like for example, I've decided to VOW to NEVER, EVER, Copy and Paste code. I never do it, unless it is my own, and in my own words. However, could it still be plagiarism regardless?

Like, lets give a silly example:

Lets say i'm using a Graphics API, and I forgot the name of the initialization function, and whether or not it is camel case or not.

I look up on the internet (Stack Overflow), and someone shows in an example that it is:

GEngine * gEngine = new GEngine();
EngineDesc engineDesc = new EngineDesc((*void)0, false, true, true, NULL);

What i will generally do is type the code out into my engine, and change the name to my own, as well as look at the function to see what it does exactly, but is this enough? I know it sounds like a silly question, I mean I might know what the first Line of code means, but what about the second one? I might not even know what the parameters are for, but i'll use the function anyways, and it will make the Graphics Engine work regardless. If I type it in and I don't know what it does (E.G. Don't research the whole function), would that count as plagiarism?

I know it sounds like i'm being REALLY overreactive about this, but I feel like this is really is a pressing issue for many programmers who may also struggle with this (irrational?)fear , and I don't want to fall into the trap of being the "programmer who says he made his own game engine, when he really just plagiarized many other peoples original code".

Unless there's a lawyer aboard here on gamedev, you're probably not going to get responses that will stand up in court. However, there are things you can do, such as look for copyright claims in the documents you read, the sites they're are posted to, etc. You can also look at documentation for any APIs you use. E.g., go to the OpenGL site and look at their license.

FYI, from circ61.pdf, Copyright Registration for Computer Programs. www.copyright.gov:

Copyright protection is not available for ideas, program logic, algorithms, systems, methods, concepts, or layouts

I am not a lawyer so I won't attempt to interpret that for you. For my own use, I wouldn't lose any sleep regarding variable names or snippets. I'd like to see someone try to copyright "float f" or "int i"

FYI, from circ61.pdf, Copyright Registration for Computer Programs. www.copyright.gov:

Copyright protection is not available for ideas, program logic, algorithms, systems, methods, concepts, or layouts

I am not a lawyer so I won't attempt to interpret that for you. For my own use, I wouldn't lose any sleep regarding variable names or snippets. I'd like to see someone try to copyright "float f" or "int i"

I'm not a lawyer either, but I do know that there are Patents out there regarding certain algorithms, especially Encryption algorithms, and Global Illumination in Computer Graphics.

I agree with Buckeye, however, I live by a moral code of not typing a single line unless I know EVERYTHING that it does. I do not write code until I understand every aspect of it.

I agree with Buckeye, however, I live by a moral code of not typing a single line unless I know EVERYTHING that it does. I do not write code until I understand every aspect of it.

Yeah, Thats kind of something i'm thinking of doing by default. I mean, it's probably the best i would be able to do anyways. I can't just memorize every single line of code and all it's parameters (thank GOD for intellisence), so I guess this would be the best option.

I was reading about this on Friday. If you want to avoid copyright infringement you need to do the following:

1) Get a team to look at the API and write a specification document

2) Get lawyers to look over document for any patent/copyright infringements

3) Get a completely different team to implement the specification knowing nothing about the original implementation.