[theme-reviewers] GPL and limiting usage

[Otto]

On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 3:14 PM, Justin Tadlock
<justin at justintadlock.com> wrote:
> For a simple example, this code in `footer.php`:

For the specific case of the footer.php, I'm forced to remember that
credit links are actually allowed in themes. If the credit link itself
is acceptable without the is_pro check, then I'd personally be hard
pressed to say it's unacceptable with that check there to allow it to
be removed.


> From what I've gathered from this discussion, that example is no different
> (please do correct me if I'm wrong).  I'm not sure if that necessarily
> breaks the GPL (probably not).  It's more a matter of policy -- whether this
> is something that we should allow on the WordPress.org theme repository.

You're basically correct, however the issue is more complex.

- The first version of the theme did essentially what your example
does. It was not-approved for that and other reasons.
- The second and current version of the theme does not contain most of
the code that the "pro" stuff had, and does not have this
service-check. Instead, that code is now in a plugin only available
from the author's site.

The key problem here seems to be that the existence of this plugin is
now unacceptable to some people, to the point where they want to
reject the theme based on it. The theme itself now has only minor
issues and would normally be perfectly acceptable as is.

-Otto