[wp-hackers] Licensing

[Ryan Boren]

On Fri, 2004-06-25 at 07:30 -0700, John Watson wrote:
> IANAL, but from my understanding of licensing and the GPL, it doesn't
> matter.  Plugins and Wordpress are separate products so I don't see
> any issue at all, legally, with using a non-GPL license with a plugin.

Plugins are combined works of WordPress.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins

>   Just because software A uses libraries from software B doesn't mean
> they have to have the same license.  

If either is GPL, yes, they do.  This is why the LGPL was created.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL

> I am a plugin author for jEdit (a GPLed text editor) and many of the
> plugins are released under non-GPL licenses.

If they're not GPL-compatible, they're probably not legal unless the
plugin API has a license exception.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LinkingOverControlledInterface

> Regarding the attribution info, the GPL says that each copy of the
> code or modified copies must publish an "appropriate copyright notice"
> and "You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
> stating that you changed the files and the date of any change."  The
> copyright is always with the original author.  The GPL is just a
> permission from the copyright holder to modify and distribute the code
> but the copyright stays with the original author.

Yes, everyone should add a copyright notice.

Anyway, this argument comes up all the time.  The Linux kernel
introduced the idea of tainting whereby modules/plugins must announce
their license.  If that license is not the GPL, loading that module
taints the kernel and makes it of questionable legality.  If we did
something like this in WordPress, a "License:" header could be added to
the plugin header.   The license would be checked and anything that is
not GPL would be flagged as tainting.  

But, really, everyone should be using the GPL.  WordPress is GPL.

Ryan

> Owen Winkler wrote:
> > > The plugins I'm writing are licensed under a Creative Commons 
> > > license. ='d be willing to put them in a central web site for 
> > > WordPress plugins.
> > >     
> > 
> > You know, I was just looking at this, and everything I've read says that
> > CC licenses and GPL are incompatible.  This really stinks because GPL
> > (as I read it) doesn't require someone who alters/augments your code to
> > retain your attribution info.  (If this is not the case, please site the
> > exact wording that allows it, because I'm curious/doubtful.)
> > 
> > Anyone else care to comment on this?  I would prefer to release under CC
> > if it's GPL-compatible for this very reason.
> >   
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-- 
Ryan Boren <ryan at boren.nu>