[wp-hackers] General consensus of "Premium Theme" concept

Jeremy Clarke jer-wphackers at simianuprising.com
Thu Mar 20 18:03:39 GMT 2008


Also, just for clarity, there are two very different questions we're
talking about here:

1 - If I make a plugin/theme and it's (conceivably) all original, can
I sell it and stop people from re-distributing it?

2 - If I make a plugin/theme for myself/my_client/grandma_joe, do I
have to give it away for free?

The first is controversial based on how you define originality (i.e.
do API calls disqualify you?). In the end the question is do you want
to take the person who re-posts it to their blog saying it's GPL to
court. (An interesting case being the ShortStat plugin, which was
erased from the web after it became the commercial 'Mint' product, but
was picked up by a developper and continued as a WP plugin).

The second I believe is non-controversial and allowed under the GPL.
If you don't re-release it then you can do whatever you want with GPL
code, only re-published versions need to make the modifications
available. (of course like Jenniffer IANAL).

Jeremy Clarke
http://simianuprising.com

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 1:35 PM, James Davis <james at freecharity.org.uk> wrote:
>
>  On 19 Mar 2008, at 21:01, Glenn Ansley wrote:
>
>  >    - And then seek to profit (by selling their code) rather than
>  >    contribute back (by publicly releasing their code)?
>
>  Nothing stops you from doing both. I was commissioned to write my
>  petition plugin but the plugin was also released under the GPL.
>
>  HTH,
>
>  James
>
>
>
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