If you have reached this web page because you found its URL included as a license-reference comment in a short piece of published computer software source code by its author(s), next to their name, as in, for example,
Markus Kuhn <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/> -- 1999-12-31 License: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/short-license.html
then you can assume the following:
This code was published by its author(s) as an easily reusable piece of free software, for example to demonstrate some particular programming practice. It is likely too short or obvious to skilled programmers to fall under, or deserve, the protection of copyright legislation. It is also likely to be useless on its own, unless verified and integrated into a larger program by an experienced software engineer, and therefore no consumer protection, warranty or liability rights apply either. Therefore, its author(s) refused to disfigure its appearance with a lengthy copyright license text.
Nevertheless, overly cautious lawyers (possibly as part of a “due diligence exercise”) occasionally contact authors of such short code snippets for a formal copyright license.
Therefore, the author(s) agree(s) to clarify that, at the user’s choice, the code can be used under any of the following licenses, or any compatible with them:
created 2011-02-15 – last modified 2011-02-15 – http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/short-license.html