[wp-hackers] Re: Removal Of Over 200 Themes?

[Matt]

On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 6:18 PM, DD32 <wordpress at dd32.id.au> wrote:
>> Why is a theme considered a derivative work of WordPress, if it is
> released separately, but dependent on WordPress?
>
> Because it relies upon WordPress, A Derivative work does not need to be
> distributed with the parent, mearly rely upon it.

You could actually make a theme that wouldn't be a derivative. By not
using any template functions, and "simply" getting everything directly
from the database. Which would mean it could operate without WordPress
(it would need a WordPress-styled database, but that really has
nothing to do with licenses) and would not be a derivative. That
would, of course, be a PITA, but you could do it if you wanted to sell
a non-GPL-compat theme.

-- 
Matt (http://mattsblog.ca/)