Revolves

When I ask this, I’m not talking about applications you create and put up for download. I’m talking about the snippets that you post on your blog or website.

Surprisingly, many simply copy and paste scripts they have created on their website for users to use without any appropriate copyright or license information. This is mostly because we often create scripts for ourselves, and adding license information is the last thing we do, if at all we do it.

I don’t know about the legal mumbo jumbos in the United States. But it’s always safe to declare that you’re releasing your snippet “as-is”, and you’re not responsible for any damage arising from it, etc.

Also, potential users of your script/snippet might want to know it’s licensing terms for various reasons.

It’s good to release your script under an open source license or under Creative Commons (any flavour of it). This way, your works can be adapted by others for their own need.

By making your small snippets open source, you also contribute to the open source community. Your snippet might become a part of a vital tool, or a larger project. It also helps gather creative minds to improve upon your ideas.

Anyway, I do not imply that closed-source software is bad. You may release proprietary software. However, if you’re releasing a small script or snippet for others to use freely, consider one of the open source licenses.

Who knows? Your contribution might become a thing to be proud of in the future.