[wp-hackers] Plugin Site

[Ryan Boren]

> I'm glad Craig seems to have respect for the developer's wishes, no
> matter what the GPL would give him permission to do.

It's also about plugin authors respecting the GPL and not trying to opt
out of the open source ecology.   Authors who muddle the license their
code is released under legally taint that code.  I wouldn't touch it
with a ten foot pole.  I think all plugin authors should have a
copyright and license declaration at the top of their plugins.  That
license must be GPL or GPL-compatible.  This is to protect WordPress as
well as the plugin author.  In my opinion, the plugin site shouldn't
accept plugins without a clearly-stated copyright and GPL-compatible
license.

Anyway, if authors don't want their plugin on the site, yank it down.
Even if someone else tries to sponsor it, I say don't put it on the site
since the original author has made a legal muddle of his code by
opposing the GPL terms of distribution and trying to add a vanity
clause.  It's not worth it.  I've been in court too many times over
copyright, licensing, and patents.  The only safe thing to do is to shun
suspect plugins.  Someone else will write a truly free plugin that can
be legally distributed.   

The license is important.  It is the most important.  I've spent 12
years writing open source code, and I'm not really too fond of those who
create derived works of open code and then mess about with the primary
tenet of open licenses -- open distribution.  Why join an open source
project if you're going to do that?

And that's all IMO, of course.

Ryan