How did early computer programmers in academic laboratories view software code sharing?

In the academic computer science laboratories of the 1950s and 1960s, early computer programmers—often referred to as "hackers"—fostered a culture that accepted or disregarded what would later be termed software piracy or "code sharing".1

These programmers frequently and informally shared the code they had written, viewing it as a collaborative practice to quickly recycle and freely modify solutions for common technical problems. This environment prioritized the open exchange of information, as developers sought to improve and fix software without the restrictions imposed by secrecy or centralized control.23

This informal ethos of sharing was particularly consistent among developers of the UNIX operating system. It was only later, as software became increasingly commercialized in the early 1980s and companies began blocking access to source code, that figures like Richard M. Stallman sought to formalize these earlier practices into a movement, eventually leading to the development of free software and open source licensing.23