In: Computer Science
How would copyright affect your ability to "cheat" by looking up snippets of code on stack overflow
First of all cheating is not a good habit. To answer your question, copyright means protecting someones original work.
This means whatever content the author created cannot be used or published by anyone else without the consent of the author.
But the question here is this person is taking reference from a stack overflow website to solve his coding problems.
Since stack overflow is a public domain where lots of developers or other people visit every day, copying code completely from there without understanding or removing any flaws present in the code, then this can be a big threat to the project or the organization you are working for. This can also lead to a hackers attack to your organization.
So you need be careful while copying code from any of the public domain websites.
But this statement is contradictory, since Stack overflow is public domain and the author has posted his work their that means its legal to refer his work but note not copying completely. Its always better to refer others code when they have written it more efficiently than your code. This is one of the best practices in development. So there is nothing wrong in referring stack overflow website. But do not copy anything blindly.
Hope I made my point here and this will help you. Enjoy!!!