Creative Commons has always recommended and used free and open source licenses for software. We have long provided a deed and metadata wrapper for the GPL.

Occasionally we’ve highlighted free software that complements CC licensed media, free software that we create, and pragmatic and philosophical correspondences between free software and free culture. Alex, Jon, and Nathan were added to CC staff in part on the strength of their contributions to free software projects.

Until now we haven’t had a section of our website dedicated to explaining and showing examples of free and open source software, as we have for CC-licensed audio, images, video, text, and educational materials. Undertandable given that CC licenses are not recommended for software, but an oversight given the synergies between free culture and free software and that the relevant FAQ item is easily overlooked.

Visit creativecommons.org/software or click on “software” from the Creative Commons home page. Look for software “featured commoners” as well as more exciting CC integration with media player, content creation and publishing software in the coming months!