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I originally thought of creative commons when while reading a book about wordpress (professional wordpress), I learned that I should also specify that the product is provided
... WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
and they recommend GNU GPL. How do I write a license or select 1?
btw, what does MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE mean actually? Isn't without warranty enough?
For small bits of code, I generally release them under the X11 licence. The problem with the GPL is that it's far too complicated for code that you don't really care enough about to protect. If you really don't want people using your code in commercial products, you would need to monitor for infringement and fight it out in court, which isn't really worth the time or the effort for small, free, open-source projects.
Copyright (c)
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
EDIT: If the body of code is more substantial, and you feel that you've invested enough time in it that you would be willing to protect it, by all means use the GPL to protect it.
Personally your best bet to get a true answer to this question would be to talk with a Legal Professional as they are going to know the specifics.
However, what I remember when i was talking with my lawyer about setting up our code license agreements is that the clause you are talking about basically protects you from cases where you say "this code does X, Y, Z", that is an implied warranty on "fitness for a particular purpose", that clause prevents you have having any issues if it doesn't do X, Y, and Z.
WTFPL - Do What The F*** You Want To Public License
DO WHAT THE F*** YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, December 2004Copyright (C) 2004 Sam Hocevar
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified copies of this license document,
and changing it is allowed as long as the name is changed.DO WHAT THE F*** YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
- You just DO WHAT THE F*** YOU WANT TO.
How are you giving these materials to people?
If you're licensing your application to people commercially, you're going down the wrong path - you need to see a lawyer to prepare a software license agreement. In these situations the customer paying for software licenses get statutory warranties, so clauses like that aren't enforceable.
If you're releasing source code or other materials for others to re-use, your original post is absolutely correct - you MUST include a warranty waiver, otherwise someone might turn around and say "you released this code claiming it did X, Y and Z - but it doesn't and I'm going to sue you", even if you didn't get paid for it.
In either case, you need to sit down and figure out what you want people to be able to do with the product.
In the latter case where you're releasing things to the community under an Open Source license, find a good OSI-approved license that aligns with your wishes: http://opensource.org/licenses/category
But as greyfade mentions, don't even think about writing your own license - it's not worth the risk.
Have you considered the BSD license(s)? The simplest (relatively) form of it, known as "Simplified BSD License" or "FreeBSD License", is particularly fit for disclaiming any warranties and/or liabilities. It does not prevent commercialization or use of your code in commercial and/or proprietary software, but it makes sure you still are the copyright holder.
You can read it here. Depending on the laws of your country, it may be more suitable to your purposes than other, more complicated, licenses.
How do I write a license or select one?
Read over a list of Free Software licenses and pick one that makes sense for your aims.
Don't write a license unless you absolutely cannot find one that suits you. If you do write a license, then take grayfade's advice and ask for legal assistance from a solicitor/attorney/whatever.
I originally thought of creative commons when while reading a book about wordpress
There are a plethora of Creative Commons licenses. Be specific about which one you're thinking of. Some CC licenses are sometimes used for code, but that's not what they were designed for. It's probably best not to use CC licenses for code.
Free Software licenses range from the extremely permissive (WTFPL) to the strongly copyleft (GNU AGPL). Somewhere in that range will be one that suits you.
