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Lets say a paper is published which describes a data science algorithm, and the paper is made available on arxiv (no patent or anything else mentioned in paper). The paper is by a university researcher, and the algorithm is not something well known.

A. Is it considered ethical to use my own implementation of that algorithm for:

  1. work/own profit
  2. own learning (I assume yes)
  3. Competition (with monetary gain).

B. On doing so, is it correct that it is the right thing to do to cite the paper (lets say I am required to hand over competition code).

Now lets say the author published some code to go along with the paper under an MIT/other open source license on github, and I mess around with it to fit my needs. What if the paper was by a company (like facebook or google, but does not cite any patent or limitation on use of the code/method) Do the same rules apply or are there other considerations?

I guess I have not found a good blog covering this and any surrounding issues I may not be aware of as self-taught professional human running into this for the first time.

Pavel Savine
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