[theme-reviewers] GPL and limiting usage

[Bryan Hadaway]

*@Chip*

Sorry, but, you just did receive confirmation from the GNU (the highest
authority on the GPL), other than that we already know WP policy:

"Commercial versions of free Themes (i.e. “freemium” or “up-sell” Themes)
are required to be released under GPL-compatible licenses"

Frankly, this is insane. If this was just some nobody developer with a
theme no one had ever heard of, it never would have been approved in the
first place. I see themes not able to be approved or taken down for far
more trivial things than what we're discussing.

I understand you're between a rock and hard place, but this overall issue
is just so plainly wrong

*@Srikanth*

Do you hear what you're saying? You're validating our points.

Besides how just completely immoral and unethical that all is and anti-GPL,
you just made reference to the proprietary kill switch via a payment/update
API, which immediately proves that DMS Pro is not 100% GPL which requires
immediate removal, period.

*@Otto*

You're referencing the exceptions/loop holes that the GNU has pointed out,
you were correct when you first pointed those out, the GNU is correct now
and we're still correct in the fact that we've already proven over and over
that those exceptions do not apply here in this case.

*Conclusion*

There's no question that DMS should be removed, it's really quite negligent
and stubborn to think anything else at this point.

However, consider for a moment that PageLines is 100% in compliance with
the GPL and WP policy. The only result that should have is to put in place
more strict policy to protect the community and users because of how
over-the-top deceptive and abusive this is to users.

So, even if your argument is purely on technicality, this still needs to be
addressed with new policy that will keep abusive behavior like this out of
our repo. You're just wrong, period. That is overwhelmingly clear.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wordpress.org/pipermail/theme-reviewers/attachments/20131009/71c17afd/attachment.html>