While I understand that version 1.8 has addressed this problem, the fact that creators are normally displayed in course listings is a major problem for many sites.

There is absolutely no need to display creators because this is NOT a PEDAGOGICAL role but an ADMINISTRATIVE one. I therefore suggest that the 1.7 code be patched to prevent creators from being displayed. This can easily be done with the following conditional statement:

$role = array_shift($roles); // First one
if ($role->roleid > 2){
$fullname = fullname($teacher, has_capability('moodle/site:viewfullnames', $context));
$namesarray[] = format_string($role->name).': <a href="'.$CFG->wwwroot.'/user/view.php?id='.
$teacher->id.'&course='.SITEID.'">'.$fullname.'</a>';
}

See http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=58606&parent=283886