[theme-reviewers] GPL and limiting usage

[Chip Bennett]

Limiting to "copying, modifying, and distributing" is a bit of a straw man.
GPL derives from Copyright law, and under Copyright law, only the copyright
holder has the right to *use* a protected work. Thus, if the GPL does not
permit use, then no use right is extended. It is implicit in the license
that use is both permitted and unrestricted.

The clause regarding limiting the scope to "copying, modifying, and
distributing" regards the *terms* under which those activities may be
conducted. Restricting use is just as much of an incompatibility with GPL
as would be restricting copying, modifying, or distributing.


On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 8:17 PM, Justin Tadlock <justin at justintadlock.com>wrote:

>  Sorry, I haven't seen the evidence of this before.  That's all new to
> me.  There's been a lot of posts.  It should be easy to understand that
> maybe I've missed something through all of the discussion.  Can you (or
> anyone) please share where, in their terms or wherever, this information is
> coming from (the information where you're not allowed to copy, modify, or
> distribute the code)?
>
> I don't need anything more than that.  I don't even care that much about
> this discussion.  I'm just interested in seeing the answer to my question.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> On 10/9/2013 6:25 PM, Bryan Hadaway wrote:
>
>  *@Justin*
>
> "If they limit how you can use the code that has been distributed to you,
> that'd be a problem."
>
>  That's what they're doing. What is a theme, a theme is code, they're
> saying you can only use this code x amount of times for x amount of dollars.
>
>  That's from the horses mouth, what more do you need? I'm happy you're
> trying to understand, but this has all been covered over and over.
>
>
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