[theme-reviewers] GPL and limiting usage

[Trent Lapinski]

"@Bryan- Maybe I missed it somewhere in the last few hundred emails, but are there any non-CyberChimps employees on this list who agree with you and @Trent?"

Absolutely, many of which have replied to this thread, and the original thread. In fact, we didn't even start this debate someone else did.

The only reason I personally got involved is because this was brought to me by people outside of CyberChimps who consulted with me and voiced their concerns to me personally because they knew I was well versed in this area.

I've also personally received many e-mails, tweets, and other private communications from various people within the community who share these concerns but are afraid to voice them publicly because they don't want to argue with Otto, or Nacin. I can't blame them, I don't really want to argue with anyone either, this is not a productive use of my time at all.

However,  I believe in the GPL, WordPress, and open source software philosophies and will defend them for the greater good of the community even if it means I have to argue with Otto who is someone I have the utmost respect for. I've learned a lot from Otto over the years, and continue to do so, and he's an amazing resource for this community. We potentially disagree on this one issue, but ultimately his ideals and mine are nearly identical.

For me, this is a user rights issue, and I will always side with users who are not well versed on the inner-workings of how theme shops conduct business. When I see something like this I speak up for all of those who can't, thats just who I am, and I'm not going to apologize for it.

As for Bryan, does he work for me? Absolutely, I'm not hiding that, but his opinions are his own and he's free to voice them, in fact I encourage it. This is a tough business to be in, and it's even harder when you play by the rules like we do, but we believe it is worth it which is why we've taken on this issue.

--Trent Lapinski
=============
CEO of CyberChimps Inc

On Oct 9, 2013, at 5:44 PM, Josh Pollock <jpollock412 at gmail.com> wrote:

> @Bryan- Maybe I missed it somewhere in the last few hundred emails, but are there any non-CyberChimps employees on this list who agree with you and @Trent?
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Bryan Hadaway <bhadaway at gmail.com> wrote:
> @Josh
> 
> 
> "I think CyberChimp's arguments could apply to Akismet."
> 
> This has nothing to do with CyberChimps, this is a list discussion that wasn't even started by us.
> 
> It was started by Ünsal Korkmaz who I don't know and who has no affiliation with CyberChimps.
> 
> This isn't a CyberChimps vs PageLines issue, it's not even a PageLines issue.
> 
> It's an issue about the GPL and WP policy, DMS is just an example that was part of the cause for this new precedent that clearly required discussion. There are a lot of people that see issues here, independently on their own that required no input from us.
> 
> Please just look at the facts. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an official in these matters, that's why I contacted the GNU directly with my questions in order to have a better understanding. You're all free to contact the GNU about this issue too. Please do your research and actually read through the entire discussion if you want to have a better understanding.
> 
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