---
title: "No licence means all rights reserved: public code is not free code"
type: Article
published: 2026-10-11T02:00:00.000Z
url: https://islamicopenfinance.com/blog/license-no-license
source: IslamicOpenFinance
---

# No licence means all rights reserved: public code is not free code

> A public repository without a licence file does not grant permission to use, change or share the code. Here is why, and what to do when you find one.

One of the most common misunderstandings is that code published on the internet is free to use. The opposite is true. If a work has no licence, the default rules of copyright apply and the author keeps all rights.

GitHub's own documentation is explicit. Without a licence, the default copyright laws apply, which means the author retains all rights to the source code and no one may reproduce, distribute or create derivative works from it. Publishing in a public repository does give other GitHub users the right to view and fork it under GitHub's terms of service, but that is not permission to put the code in a commercial product.

When a team finds useful code without a licence, it has three options:

- Ask the maintainer to add one. Often the missing licence is an oversight.
- Do not use the code, and find an alternative with a clear licence.
- Negotiate a separate written permission, which usually involves a contract and legal advice.

The same rule applies to what a team publishes itself. If the goal is for others to reuse the work, the team has to choose a licence explicitly. If it deliberately grants no permission, saying so in the readme avoids the impression that the licence was simply forgotten.

For a bank's procurement or a fintech's due diligence, an unlicensed dependency is a finding in its own right. It should be recorded, resolved and not waved through because the code was easy to download.

This is general information, not legal advice.

**Sources:** [GitHub Docs: Licensing a repository](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/licensing-a-repository), [Open Source Initiative: The Open Source Definition](https://opensource.org/osd)

**Audio:** listen to [this week's episode](/podcasts/license-no-license), a short conversation on the same topic.

## This week's business calendar: 11 October – 17 October, 2026

Generated automatically from the the IslamicOpenFinance calendar: business days, holidays and the T+1 settlement date for each day of the week.

### Week at a glance
- Business days, Saudi Arabia (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, United Arab Emirates (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, Bahrain (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Qatar (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Kuwait (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Oman (weekend: Friday and Saturday): **5**
- Business days, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, Indonesia (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, Pakistan (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- Business days, United Kingdom (England and Wales) (weekend: Saturday and Sunday): **5**
- No month end this week.

### Day by day
| Day | Status | T+1 settlement | Events |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sunday, 11 October 2026 | Business day | 12 October | — |
| Monday, 12 October 2026 | Business day | 13 October | — |
| Tuesday, 13 October 2026 | Business day | 14 October | — |
| Wednesday, 14 October 2026 | Business day | 15 October | — |
| Thursday, 15 October 2026 | Business day | 18 October | — |
| Friday, 16 October 2026 | Weekend | 18 October | — |
| Saturday, 17 October 2026 | Weekend | 18 October | — |

The same dates are available from the [calendar API](/calendar/), per market.