There's a common misconception among many engineers that they own the code that they write when employed by many traditional valley firms. A thorough reading of the employment contract would usually resolve this, but how many engineers do you know who don't port some of their code between firms?

There's also a separate cultural clash between many Eastern cultures and many Western cultures surrounding property and ownership rights around intangible assets. I'm not well versed enough to adequately enumerate them with the appropriate level of detail.

I'll bet a dollar, though, that depending on this engineer's upbringing, one of these two applies and explains the "no big deal" mentality.