>My most recent 'big' fortune 500 company put me under very strict legal terms regarding what type of software I was allowed to use. Any code I didn't write 100% myself had to be approved by legal before it could be used in software I wrote for them.

Back in the day, this was the norm.

>In reality, the bulk of developers used whatever they wanted with no consideration.

This wasn't - it was grounds for termination.

I remember stuff like - (for Windows C++) you can use Microsoft MFC and Microsoft STL - anything else you write from scratch.

Legal wasn't very flexible back then.