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Suppose I’ve found a “text” somewhere in open access (say, on public network share). I have no means to contact the author, I even don’t know who is the author.
What can I legally do with such “text”?
Update: I am not going to publish that “text”, but rather learn from it myself.
Update: So, if I ever see an anonymous code, article, whatever, shouldn’t I even open it, because otherwise I’d copy its contents to my brain?
IANAL: There is no license. The original author (whoever it may be) retains copyright and all the rights associated with it, and has not granted any explicit license to anyone to do anything with their work. Please do check with an actual lawyer versed in copyright, though, since it seems like there should be a way to use the text in your particular circumstances and (s)he would likely know what that way is.
UPDATE: Copyright is chiefly concerned with (re)distribution; if you can read it, you’re free to learn from it, although the DMCA places legal restrictions on what steps you can take to be able to read it, e.g., you aren’t supposed to use DeCSS to read subtitles since that is a ‘circumvention of access control’.