Someone wrote a .NET library to use the Google Maps API (link to the project). I

Question

Someone wrote a .NET library to use the Google Maps API (link to the project). I downloaded the entire repository and there are only source files, no LICENSE.txt, readme, etc. However, I guess Google makes you pick a license when creating a new project so the author specified "New BSD License".

What I would like to do is download the source and rework it (maybe include JSON.net, add features, etc) and keep it in my github account.

So I have a few questions related to this:

Is the license valid even though the author doesn't have an explicit file with his name, copyright, etc?
If the license is valid, then do I just put his name and year into that BSD License Template?
In general, if there is a license included with a project, how do I make sure I am doing right by the author? Would I just leave their license information in tact and then add my own on top of it?
Am I over thinking this and some of these licenses just amount to a "do whatever you want just don't sue me" (kind of my feelings, since I would be delighted if anyone wanted to use my code for anything at all)?

Explanation / Answer

Without an explicit license file in the source code repository you are on difficult ground.

Without looking at the google code page, which isn't part of the project itself, just one repository for that code, there is no indication in the source code that any rights have been assigned to any third party. It may not have copyright notices, but that doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted.

As it is, all it takes is for the project to be removed from google code and you would have no way of demonstrating that you had any rights to use the code. So, in it's current state the project is an interesting curio, but with no legal reuse value to anyone else.

The best solution to this is to contact the author and ask him/her to add an explicit license to the code repository. You could even send a patch, with an explanation of why not adding a license file could result in people avoiding their project.

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