Pádraig Brady wrote:
> That code has been there "from the beginning" and I'm guessing it's
> to prompt users to allow them to chmod the file in a separate terminal?

If we go back far enough (i.e., before commit 6bf3479 dated 2000-08-27), 
this message was output only if -f was also given.  More recently we've 
seen similar complaints, e.g.: 
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2007-03/msg00130.html

At least the diagnostic wording could be improved so that users who are 
prompted don't get the false impression that the copy will succeed; 
POSIX clearly allows this.  I installed the attached patches (the second 
is just a code cleanup).  Perhaps that's enough.