[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #8135: Non-GPL and incorrectly licensed/non-attributed images in themes/plugins

[Making WordPress.org]

#8135: Non-GPL and incorrectly licensed/non-attributed images in themes/plugins
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 Reporter:  kkmuffme          |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)      |     Status:  new
 Priority:  high              |  Milestone:
Component:  Plugin Directory  |   Keywords:
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 https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-
 guidelines/#1-plugins-must-be-compatible-with-the-gnu-general-public-
 license

 states that:
 >All code, data, and images — anything stored in the plugin directory
 hosted on WordPress.org — must comply with the GPL or a GPL-Compatible
 license. Included third-party libraries, code, images, or otherwise, must
 be compatible.

 Unfortunately, it seems that over time enforcement of it for images was
 neglected (possibly bc https://wordpress.org/about/license/ links to
 https://www.drupal.org/about/licensing#non-code-assets which says that
 images don't have to be GPL, which is correct for GPL in general, but not
 for the WP plugin repository)

 There are 1000s of plugins with that issue, but let's look at a single one
 e.g.
 https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/woocommerce/trunk/assets/images
 contains many for example
 https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/woocommerce/trunk/assets/images/paypal.png
 which is not licensed under a GPL-compatible license.

 In fact, it seems that there very few plugins that correctly
 attribute/license images at all.

 Conversely, an example that does it well is WP's default theme:
 https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/trunk/src/wp-
 content/themes/twentytwentyfive/readme.txt#L58

 Honestly, since it's essentially impossible to get GPL compatible images
 in many cases, I was about to propose to drop this GPL requirement for
 images - until I came across the reason, why it was added initially by
 Matt:
 https://wordpress.org/news/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/
 >Even though graphics and CSS aren’t required to be GPL legally, the lack
 thereof is pretty limiting. Can you imagine WordPress without any CSS or
 javascript? So as before, we will only promote and host things on
 WordPress.org that are 100% GPL or compatible

 Additionally, given the fact, that all plugins contain a license.txt and a
 readme.txt which prominently states "License:" (and not just the entry-
 point .php file that contains "License:"), I'd argue this isn't something
 that applies only to plugins hosted in the plugin directory, but all
 themes/plugins that use this "schema". This is because for the "consumer"
 (me included, I always thought bc of that License: specified all plugin
 content is bound by that license) it does create the appearance that the
 whole work and it's contents are licensed under the specified "License:"

 I wanted to document this situation and the reasoning behind it as I
 understand it. I'm sure this will generate a lot of discussion, and I'm
 interested to hear different perspectives on how this should be handled
 going forward

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8135>
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