Via MacOrama: GrowlHUD, a HUD-like display style for Growl. Not quite convinced that I’ll switch to that one.

Anyway, further down the page:

This software is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

Sigh.

Sadly, the author of this piece of software failed to do the tiniest bit of research on his choice of license.

Creative Commons licenses are not intended to apply to software. They should not be used for software.

This isn’t the first project that I’ve seen incorrectly use Creative Commons for software (Transmission briefly did for some bits), and I’m afraid it won’t be the last, either.

I might come off as pedantic, but my criticism is not about whether Creative Commons is particularly fit for use in software. It’s about this: when you go through the trouble of licensing a creation of yours, you ought to carefully pick and understand the exact terms. That’s in your own best interest, silly.

I come across so many people who root for one licensing model or another and don’t even really begin to understand any of the choices. I see such statements as “the GPL will protect my creation better than copyright does!” (no, copyright itself is the ultimate protection; any license by definition decreases it) or “there’s nothing more libre than the MIT license!” (if that truly is your concern, what about getting rid of the copyright and putting your content under the public domain?) all the time, and it’s sad.

You cannot expect a software developer to be an expert or even much of a novice in IP law, and more than you can expect, say, a photographer or author to. That’s the reason efforts such as Creative Commons were launched in the first place: to make it easier for every party involved to grasp: the licensor, as well as the licensee. But couldn’t you still at least skim through a FAQ?

And to those who think intellectual property is a crazy concept (I can see where you’re coming from) and shouldn’t exist as such: there’s always the public domain. Really, if you don’t like copyright, don’t like restrictions, and believe your creation should be as free, open, libre as possible, that is the choice you should be going for. And yes, it is proven as a workable concept in a particular piece of software many of you use every single day.