[wp-hackers] Plugin Site

[Steve]

Okay, now that the thread has totally gone beyond what Craig initially 
was thinking about...

Re: Licensing.
Plugins to Wordpress aren't all that different from drivers in Linux. 
I'm sure many of you remember the HUGE debate that this exact same 
subject caused on the LKML and the whole subject is still pretty much up 
in the air. However, my personal opinion is basically that because the 
plugins are being run as a part of the application and could not exist 
outside of that application, they therefore must follow the same 
licensing terms (or compatible) as the application. ie, WordPress is 
GPL, Plugins must be GPL compatible. This can include BSD style licenses 
(such as I use) or any other license thats listed by the FSF as compatible.

As for distribution of those plugins, its entirely up to the author of 
the plugin how they choose to distribute their plugin. I think the 
general consensus is that many people do not want deep links directly to 
the download, but would much prefer a link to their site. Easily done.

Regarding where the file is downloaded from... Initially thats up to the 
developer of the plugin, but ultimate, because of the terms of the GPL, 
its out of their hands. If I extend their plugin under the terms of the 
GPL, I can then distribute my version of the plugin in any form I choose 
as long as it conforms to the terms of the GPL. Exactly the same thing I 
can do with the entire WordPress package if I was so inclined (say 
custom installs that include my own updates for specific customers). 
Whether or not the plugin is stored on the wp-plugins.org site is 
ultimate only up to the developer of that version of the plugin. The GPL 
says that I can distribute my version of the plugin any way I choose.

I very much like the idea of something set up in the same way as Mozilla 
Extensions. In fact, I think thats a brilliant idea. Developers should 
be responsible for maintaining their own plugins on the site. As far as 
versioning goes for new updates, theres nothing wrong with using a 
pingback/trackback to that plugins entry on the site to indicate an 
updated version. In fact, that'd make things extremely easy given that 
WP already has all the trackback stuff implemented for being able to 
define what sites to ping/trackback.

Hold it a second.........



Okay, asbestos suit is on now ;-) Feel free to flame away ;-)

Steve
(aka Korgan)


Rich Bowen wrote:

>On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Alex King wrote:
>
>  
>
>>The previous threads on this demonstrated that several plugin 
>>developers felt very strongly about *not* having their downloads 
>>directly linked to. Several of today's posts have said something along 
>>the lines of: "The GPL means people can't stop us from mirroring their 
>>plugins". This is how such a condition could quite easily arise.
>>    
>>
>
>Right, but what I'm saying is that it would be the authors who would
>submit the stuff to the web site. If they didn't like the conditions of
>the site, then they would not submit. Thus, no problem. Code that
>authors did not want to be there would not be there.
>
>  
>
>>--Alex
>>
>>http://www.alexking.org/
>>
>>
>>On Jul 16, 2004, at 2:54 PM, Rich Bowen wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Alex King wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>If the authors feel an 'us vs. them' mentality about the site, I don't
>>>>see the site becoming as successful as it would with their support;
>>>>regardless of the legality of licensing issues.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Presumably it would be the authors who would be submitting their code 
>>>to
>>>the site in the first place. I'm not sure I see how such a condition
>>>could ever arise in the first place.
>>>      
>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>hackers mailing list
>>hackers at wordpress.org
>>http://wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/hackers_wordpress.org
>>
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
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