There has been a lot of discussion about WordPress and the GPL lately. People are discussing/complaining about what you can and can’t do due to the license. It’s all a bit baffling to me.
Whether you like the GPL or not, the license is as much a part of WordPress as PHP and MySQL. WordPress is an existing quantity, if you want to build for WordPress (themes, plugins, etc.) you know what you have to work with – including the license. There are no surprises here.
Just as it makes no sense to complain you can’t build WordPress plugins in Ruby or Python, it makes no sense to complain about having to license your WordPress plugins/themes under the GPL.
WordPress is GPL. Period. The rules are the rules, if you want to play – welcome. If not, there are lots of other projects to explore and contribute to.
More recent discussion on this topic:
- Not Lonely at All – Matt Mullenweg
- Licensing is the vehicle, our users are the environment | Weblog Tools Collection
- WordPress Themes are GPL, too
- Commercial WordPress Themes’s PHP Code is GPL 2 Too – A Fool’s Wisdom
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Not Lonely at All — Matt Mullenweg adds this Pingback:
[...] See also: Alex King — Breaking News WordPress is GPL. [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:
And yet Crowd Favorite is living proof that you can make money despite and because of WordPress being GPL.
July 6th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Absolutely – lots of individuals and companies do well working with GPL’ed software in a variety of ways. I’m proud that Crowd Favorite is one of them.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
links for 2009-07-06 | GFMorris.com adds this Pingback:
[...] Breaking News: WordPress is GPL | alexking.org (tags: gfmorris_comment wordpress GPL) [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
kristarella adds this Comment:
Having read lots of the discussion and pored through the documentation on the GNU Project site I really don’t think there is cause to be baffled by opposing opinions, or that there is a definitive “rules are rules” on the topic. There are plenty of instances, particularly in Linux software (which has been testing the GPL much longer than common-use web based apps), where themes or templates have been specified not derivative works. Also, certain libraries allow for linking without the linked items becoming derivatives.
I’ve heard Matt say “if we’d intended those kind of exceptions we would have put them in the license”. I wish they’d stated their intentions 5 years ago, or better, in the license to clarify the it. The license does have a certain amount of ambiguity to allow software creators to determine what they consider derivative works.
Themes could have easily been specified as non-derivative linked items if WP.org said so. It’s obvious now that they don’t want that to be the case, but as far as I can see it’s only been with the advent of really awesome themes (and proprietary themes) that the distinction has finally been made.
For some it will be a life changing (or at least business changing) decision to make and/or use GPL themes. You’re right, there’s no point complaining about it, but I think it’s a valid complaint that the creator’s decision wasn’t clarified sooner (with actual reasoning behind it, as opposed a vague, non-enforceable expression of personal preference).
July 6th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
WordPress is GPL. Period « Tylko dla DPS adds this Pingback:
[...] Breaking News: WordPress is GPL | alexking.org. [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Alex adds this Comment:
kristarella – you’re welcome to your opinion, but I’m afraid I find your arguments to be without basis or merit. What could have been done is irrelevant, the way things do work is what is at question. Based on my very thorough understanding of how themes work and my reading of the GPL, there is no question here.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:26 am
DaveZatz adds this Comment:
So can I swipe any Wordpress theme from any blog, including trademarked graphics?
July 7th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
No, license is about distribution – not copyright or trademark.
July 7th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Free is for Users, not Publishers | Thought Clusters adds this Pingback:
[...] Cuban, Shafeen, Yglesias, etc.) and the meaning of GPL vis-a-vis WordPress (Mullenweg, Jalkut, King, etc.) The primary question is, does a business benefit by allowing consumers to use its products [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 4:17 am