[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #16898: Fix plugins about page license requirement

[WordPress Trac]

#16898: Fix plugins about page license requirement
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 Reporter:  scribu              |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal              |   Milestone:  WordPress.org
Component:  WordPress.org site  |     Version:
 Severity:  normal              |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                      |
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Comment (by chipbennett):

 Replying to [comment:21 Ipstenu]:
 > > None of that matters, because none of the Plugins are being
 distributed with WordPress. They're simply being distributed, stand-alone.
 >
 > '''BY WORDPRESS.ORG''' though, yes? Thus they are pushed through the
 WordPress plugin installer, in a direct connection to the servers and your
 blog. Which ... Makes that a really shady thing since it's distribution.
 Murky grey. I'd get a lawyer, and an answer as to what the wordpress.org
 (not WordPress the app) was licensed as first.

 I still see no licensing issues in that arrangement. It's all an end-user
 scenario. The '''end user''' searches, transfers, and installs Plugins,
 ''stand alone'' into his own instance of WordPress.
 >
 > Personally I don't have a horse in this race. I think that GPLv2 for
 plugins is fine, and that they should come to some sort of level with
 plugins vs themes.

 My primary horse in this race is avoiding more needless licensing drama. I
 would much rather WPORG simply state that, as a matter of Policy, hosted
 Plugins must be GPLv2 compatible; end of story. No need to delve into the
 finer points of derivative code and license inheritance, nor the nuances
 of inter-version compatibility of the GPL itself.

 I stated an opinion in an earlier comment, but it won't be a big deal to
 me if that opinion is over-ruled. :) I think Jane, Nacin, et al have made
 compelling enough arguments to justify a policy decision that, in all
 honesty, ''needs no justification'' (even if some disagree with it, and
 ask that it be considered to be changed).

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16898#comment:22>
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