[wp-hackers] Premium plugin protection

[Michael Torbert]

Most are.
iThemes, Gravity Forms, All in One SEO Pack - Pro, Shopp, and Getshopped are
all definitely GPL.
BTW, if it isn't explicitly stated that it's a different (GPL-compatible)
license, it is GPL by default.
Also, both versions of All in One SEO Pack explicitly are GPL.


On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 7:13 PM, Mike Schinkel
<mikeschinkel at newclarity.net>wrote:

> On Dec 12, 2010, at 3:28 AM, Brian Layman wrote:
> > On 12/12/2010 3:10 AM, Mike Schinkel wrote:
> >> Can you please name some of the other commercial plugin vendors?  I
> would love to know who they are.
> > I can't remember for sure which the four were but ithemes, gravity forms,
> All-in-on-SEO pro, shopp, getshopped, phpurchase, wp-member, WishList
> Member, wpjobboard and gdpress are all premium plugins I've looked at
> recently or own.  Then there's also everything at wp-plugins.com.  I'm
> sure there are top n posts out there for premium plugins...
>
> Brian,
>
> It occurred to me today that most of those you mention have not chosen a
> GPL license. Doing a quick Google search of each of their domains and the
> letters "GPL" here is what I found:
>
> Explicit reference to supporting GPL
>
> -- GDPress:
> http://www.dev4press.com/2009/blog/announcements/new-dev4press-is-now-open/
>
> -- iThemes:
> http://ithemes.com/ithemes-is-going-gpl/
>
> -- Gravity Forms:
> http://www.gravityforms.com/terms-and-conditions/
>
> -- Shopp:
> http://docs.shopplugin.net/GPLv3
>
> No reference to GPL:
>
> -- PHPurchase
> -- wp-member
> -- WishList Member
> -- WPJobBoard
>
> GPL for non-Pro version, unclear about the rest:
>
> -- All-in-one-SEO Pro (I had to look long and hard to determine if the Pro
> version was in-fact GPL. I wasn't able to find any web page that said so
> directly but I did find that it was sold on http://wpplugins.com and they
> have a statement saying everything is GPL on this page:
> http://wpplugins.com/about/)
>
> -- GetShopped (Base version is GPL but as mentioned before it seems that
> other versions are not. Not sure if Dan Milward is following this but it
> would be nice if he could elaborate)
> http://getshopped.org/extend/premium-upgrades/
> http://getshopped.org/forums/topic.php?id=14896
>
>
> Anyway it seems that some of the plugin vendors are offering GPL, but as
> many (maybe more?) are bypassing the GPL and it seems they are being
> successful. Is it that the community respect is really unimportant to the
> majority of potential customers?
>
> These are honest questions. I know for some reason they annoy some people
> on the list, but the requests for clarity which is a great thing can be
> annoying.
>
> Based on these examples it seems that maybe businessman who doesn't really
> care about the ethos of the GPL and who don't worry about the good graces of
> the core community can easily run a plugin business that bypasses the GPL by
> appealing to the masses who pay no attention to the politics of the GPL?
>
> I'd actually love to hear what those who are not supporting the GPL have to
> say about it, and I'm also curious why Matt hasn't publicly campaigned
> against them like he campaigned against Thesis?
>
> -Mike
>
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