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WordPress Creator GPL Says WP Template Must Be GPL'd
An anonymous reader writes "Matt Mullenweg (the creator of open source blog software WordPress), after review by various legal experts, is sticking to his guns that themes and plugins that 'extend' WordPress violate the GPL if they are not themselves distributed under the GPL. Matt has gone so far as to post this on Twitter. According to Matt, the premium template called Thesis should be under the GPL and the owner is not happy about it. WordPress is willing to sue the maker of Thesis theme for not following GPL licensing. The webmasters and Thesis owners are also confused with new development. Mark Jaquith wrote an excellent technical analysis of why WordPress themes inherit the GPL. This is why even if Thesis hadn't copy-and-pasted large swathes of code from WordPress (and GPL plugins) its PHP would still need to be under the GPL."
The GPL doesn't allow linking with incompatibly licensed software. The LGPL, however, does.
"Never said that. Profiting by adding to software with a GPL or GPL-like license and then trying to sell that mix of proprietary and GPLed code, directly contravening the licensing terms, is evil."
So is filesharing. Both are violating the license terms. However, only one is politically correct around here.
"Either ignorant or deliberate misinterpretation. He didn't criticise the company for wanting to profit off the GPL, he criticised them for wanting to enjoy the benefit of the GPL while not wanting to fulfil their legal obligations under the same license."
Kind of like people sharing software: Enjoying the benefit of the software (using it) while not fulfilling legal obligations (paying for it).
It's funny how so many people around here are fine with sharing proprietary software yet get so angry when someone tries the equivalent with GPL software (using it in proprietary apps without giving back/re-licensing).
This is why I stopped taking the community seriously.