Source Code Sharing

Discussions center on the risks, benefits, and debates around sharing proprietary source code with companies or open-sourcing it, including fears of IP theft, trust issues, and obligations to make code public.

📉 Falling 0.5x Open Source
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Keywords

e.g CRUD HN FOSS U.S JavaScriptCore tarsnap.com LabView VCS github.com code source code source open source open public codebase software secret sauce code github

Sample Comments

Google234 Jan 24, 2021 View on HN

Then they can give the source code out to anyone...

sergiomattei Oct 27, 2021 View on HN

Don't open source your code then.

Cozumel Sep 3, 2017 View on HN

What guarantee is there you wouldn't just take the code for yourself?

rektomatic Oct 7, 2021 View on HN

I wish he would put the code out on github, does tht break laws if its not actively doing it?

detaro Mar 2, 2022 View on HN

you are missing "... and not share the source code ..." in your question, which is clearly the context here.

grishka Dec 21, 2022 View on HN

Yes? What do they have to gain from the code not being public?

forgottenacc57 Jul 3, 2017 View on HN

Presumably this company is happy for you to take their codebase and walk your next potential employer through it. Probably their competition.

say_it_as_it_is Jul 20, 2023 View on HN

Marketed with "Trust our code" , but doesn't share it?

Tepix Dec 23, 2025 View on HN

I find it odd to give a company access to my source code. Why would I do that? It's not like they should be trusted more than necessary.

em-bee Feb 21, 2023 View on HN

you don't always have access to that. people can copy the code without copying the repository.