[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #16898: Fix plugins about page license requirement

[WordPress Trac]

#16898: Fix plugins about page license requirement
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 Reporter:  scribu              |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal              |   Milestone:  WordPress.org
Component:  WordPress.org site  |     Version:
 Severity:  normal              |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                      |
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Comment (by chipbennett):

 Replying to [comment:17 Ipstenu]:
 > To quote GNU on this one:
 >
 >> ...

 None of that matters, because ''none of the Plugins are being distributed
 with WordPress''. They're simply being distributed, stand-alone. Any use,
 combination, or compilation is taking place ''by the user''. So, Rarst is
 right: there is absolutely no ''licensing'' reason that the repository
 can't host GPLv3 Plugins.

 I also tend to agree with Rarst that the risk of rolling a GPLv3
 repository-hosted Plugin into core is insignificantly trivial. And if it
 were ever truly an issue, the Plugin developer could be requested to
 release the code under GPLv2; problem solved.

 The repository policy is what it is, because the owners of the repository
 want it to be that way. And ''there's nothing wrong with that''. But such
 policy decision should not be conflated with non-existent licensing
 requirements.

 >
 > The reason themes are okay is that they can be dual licensed, I suspect.
 The WP specific code is GPLv2, where as the non WP stuff is not.

 Not really. Note that the guidelines simply stat ''GPL compatible''; no
 version of GPL is specified. 100% of code hosted in the Theme repository
 must be under a GPL-compatible license - not just PHP, but ''everything''.
 You will find no split-licensed code in the repository. But by the same
 token, we don't differentiate between GPL versions.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16898#comment:20>
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