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This is not true in the US where everything is automatically copyrighted and protected, so nothing goes directly into the public domain (even if the author wants it). Thus no license means that you have no license to use the code legally.

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Correct. That's not true in Europe either. IIRC it's not true in Asia either. I don't understand why so many people who don't have even the most basic understanding or experience of licensing feel they must post their opinion as if they were facts. People are certainly entitled to their opinion. But so many comments here are speaking absolute nonsense about licensing as if they were facts. I genuinely don't understand why people feel compelled to do so.

Or any country the US has a reciprocal copyright treaty with, which is all but a vanishingly small set of countries.

A work is protected by copyright the moment it's authored, and all rights are reserved unless it's explicitly licensed otherwise.

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