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Comment by th0ma5 | Hacker News Reader

Is the upvoting from a cynicism that the legal disclaimers are 10x the code? :D It is a compelling situation, on the other hand, I have been generally impressed that Oracle has their house in order, for sure. Thanks for posting this, though!

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Unfortunately the license is necessary. Without a license the code is covered by copyright by default, making any redistribution or usage of the code a copyright violation. Although a one-liner "do whatever the fuck you want" "license" is sufficient for redistribution or usage, it gives other people the opportunity to sue Oracle if the code somehow causes any kind of damage. Granted, it's just a Hello World, but in the US anybody can sue anyone for anything so I'm sure some jerk can come up with a stupid reason to sue someone over a Hello World. All this has made lawyers extremely careful.

Sure, but if there was ever code that deserved the WTFPL[1], this would be it.

That's assuming this sort of example code is even copyrightable.

  [1] http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/

I'm surprised it's missing the standard stipulation that the code is not to be used in nuclear facilities or life support systems, and that it not be exported to Iran, Cuba, Syria, or North Korea.

That's part of the overall license you sign/agree to when you pay for the licenses or download it from their site.

Any code is not automatically covered by copyright. Copyrighted work needs to pass the threshold of originality, and an Hello World probably won't.

Judging from the title of the same post on Reddit i'd say that yes, that was the original intent.

(I really don't like this practice of cross-posting stuff from Proggit, i've seen it a lot, even from top HNers)

I found this on Twitter. I'm rarely on Reddit. Just because something is on Reddit doesn't mean that's where someone found it.

No problem ceejayoz, i saw this on Reddit too so i took the chance to point out that behavior.

Edit: Seen your update... yes, obviously. What i was referring to is, instead, similar to the practice discussed a while ago of "bot-posting" stuff from popular sources. I'm happy to see you are not one of them.

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