Is it legal to publish a book on about coding Python or Java on Amazon Kindle publishing?

Question

I'm tossing around the idea of writing and publishing a book on the Amazon Kindle platform about Java or Python. The name of the book would be something like "Basic and Simple Programming with Java" or "Learn to code with Python".

I would probably start with a chapter on how to set up an IDE, and have the book cover the basics such as variables, strings, conditionals, etc. using code examples. A simple example would be like

String name = "Sally";

Python states that "Python is developed under an OSI-approved open source license, making it freely usable and distributable, even for commercial use", so I assume the answer is yes for Python.

Java seems more legally complicated and I can't find anywhere if writing and publishing a book using and citing Java code is legally allowed.

Am I allowed to commercially publish and use samples of different coding languages in a book?

Answer 1

Writing a book about Java or Python is not a problem w.r.t. the licenses of the programming languages. The book will be your own copyright (if you write it yourself), and it will not depend on the license terms which (for example) Oracle provides for Java.

Whenever you have sample code, which you include in your book, you need to look at 3 cases:

• if the code is trivial and simple (a no-brainer) like the line mentioned in your question, then nobody can claim copyright, no matter if you write it yourself or if this is copied from elsewhere
• if the code is complex and you have written it yourself, then you can determine the license conditions. For example you could include it with the rest of the text of your book and state "all rights reserved", or you could keep it separate and state that "all code in this book, except when stated otherwise, is (C) < my name> and licensed under MIT license"
• Whenever you use non-trivial code copied from 3rd parties you have to comply with the license terms of that code as provided by the original author.

I would recommend that you find other on-line publications of renowned publishers and check how it is done there and that you follow their example.