Thesis Adopts a Split GPL License
Thesis has officially adopted a split GPL license , putting an end to the explosive debate between WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and Thesis developer Chris Pearson which launched a community-wide discussion on the GPL and WordPress themes . To clarify the split GPL license, Chris Pearson adds , “the PHP is GPLv2 and the CSS, JS, and images are proprietary.” Specifically, this means that Thesis no longer violates the GPL of WordPress and the several plugins that Thesis was based on. Matt Mullenweg was thrilled to hear the news, replying with , “Now, back to work.
When Your Blog Gets Slogged, It’s More Than GPL.. Right?
Yesterday, I wrote about a problem Matt had about the GPL license with the Thesis Theme . Though I am not biased and seriously do not want to get into an argument about it, let me put forth an argument that I think is really worth thinking about
Licensing is the vehicle, our users are the environment
I have been following the WordPress Theme GPL discussion very closely for as long as I have been involved with WordPress and I am glad that Matt, with the help of the Software Freedom Law Center , has cleared the air . There has been a lot of valuable discussion surrounding this blog post and the issue, here is a small list of what I have read. Lloyd’s analysis on GPL and themes Daniel’s view from the other side of the fence (be sure to read through the comments, there is a lot of wisdom there) WPTavern’s forum post on the blog dev blog post and the forum post(s) leading up to it Brian Gardner wants the community to move on Other miscellaneous posts on the issue I am a huge proponent of the GPL and consider it to be one of the primary pillars of WordPress, both as a piece of software, and as a community.
Official WordPress Commercial Theme Directory is live
The Official WordPress Commercial Theme Directory is now open. It is linked off the WordPress Extend and is part of the parent theme directory set of links
iThemes is now GPL
Cory Miller’s iThemes is now completely GPL compliant ! This is great news indeed and they are the second premium theme vendor who fully support the GPL and align their business models with that of WordPress and its community. Cory is a friend of mine and in full disclosure, has been an advertiser on this blog in the past
Some WordPress News from WordCamp San Francisco
For all you fans of WordPress, this weekend has been a good one. Although I personally wasn’t able to attend the WordCamp San Francisco event, many were able to go and we’ve been receiving a lot of great information. As a result, I wanted to do a quick post to bring to your attention a couple of the things we are hearing from the event, and in particular, from Matt Mullenweg’s “State of the Word” address, which he does at each WordCamp event: WordPress 2.8 Coming VERY Soon! There have been hints from the WordPress team about adding a section to their theme repository for GPL-compliant premium themes (paid themes which comply with GPL). I haven’t gotten clarification yet if their will also be a similar site setup for premium plugins that comply with GPL.
