This is strange

Open source software is widely used -- Firefox, Thunderbird, Linux, OpenOffice, etc. My sense is that computer scientists are also very open about sharing their research, posting working drafts of their research papers and often providing source code for software under the terms of an open source license (GPL, BSD, Apache, etc.).

Apparently some computer science courses don't (or didn't) reward the same behavior.

Kyle Brady, a computer science major at San Jose State University, took a course earlier this year on data structures and algorithms. After each assignment was due, he posted his code in a publicly accessible Subversion repository. His professor contacted him after the end of the semester and threatened to fail him unless he removed the code. Kyle, who is obviously bright and committed to sharing knowledge, appealed to the department head who referred it to SJSU's Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. Their response? Here's how Kyle describes it:

Thanks to some perseverance and asking the right questions, SJSU Professors are now prohibited from barring students from posting their code solutions online, as well as penalizing their students for doing so.

A win for students, programmers, and copyfighters nationwide!

Congratulations, Kyle! I'd be delighted if students in my courses took the time to post solutions to the problems I assign in population genetics or to share their analyses of the problems I pose in conservation biology. I agree with you that sharing knowledge makes us all better off.