Regardless of whether or not it is, the article makes statements about how its " freely downloadable via any browser" and how "The crime, it seems, was the uplo

Regardless of whether or not it is, the article makes statements about how its " freely downloadable via any browser" and how "The crime, it seems, was the uploading of public code to a public repository". The point is that (legal or not), the code is not public and shouldn't be treated as such. No other code (eg javascript from all the HN starstups' web apps) that is downloadable is automatically "public code". Innocent until proven guilty and all that. But... since copyright automatically applies to all works, yes, I think it does and should apply to illegal code (and every other code or work out there). Having said that, I don't particularly see much morally objectionable with what this guy did in this case, even if its not legal.