In trying to make it sound "less bad" you've confused what the real question is. It should have been "Have you every exploited the fact that something is publi

In trying to make it sound "less bad" you've confused what the real question is. It should have been "Have you every exploited the fact that something is publicly available for your own gain?" Take any design pattern (code design pattern). Now, there will be several variants on how to code it, but there will be millions of instances of nearly identical implementations, at least half of which started as a copy-paste (or type it nearly exactly the same from repetition, or copy paste from an earlier project, or reuse a file). To "borrow" in the term you describe, I could look at a site, and code something myself that looks exactly the same way, and it not be considered borrowing. However, it's still "taking" it. Think of it like this...every single piece of code can be reduced down to a specialized chip that performs the same function. Did you create a chip that did exactly the same thing intentionally, or did you create a chip that did something different, or did you plug in their chip?