WordPress and Thesis talk GPL and the debate over license

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From time to time this issue raises its head in the blogosphere and it pretty much came to a head recently. Its interesting to see the difference in the points of view of the supporters of Open Source and those that work on it but sell theirproduct in the typical fashion, namely for profit and their reasons and issues with this process.

WordPress GPL

WordPress, developed by Matt Mullenweg has a General Public License (GPL) which means that it is distributed freely to all and as such it has allowed development from 1000′s of people who are part of the user base and community. With 11.4 million users out there hosted on WordPress and an estimated 12 million more on self hosted solutions it has established itself as one of the top platforms to use for a blog or website.

Thesis Theme

The Thesis Theme by Chris Pearson has been developed and sold as a separate entity (164 dollars for an unlimited license) but it is based on the WordPress platform. It has an estimated 27,000 users and is NOT under GPL (apparently it is as of recently but I’m still seeking confirmation on this.)

Chris as a business person is arguing that he isnt beheld to WordPress, the license and is resisting the GPL. Have a listen to the debate, arranged by Andrew Warner in the vid and see how you feel on the two sides to the story.

Personally I think Matt came across as more convincing and with a stronger basis for the “correct” thing to do in this particular situation. What do you think?

  • http://level343.com/article_archive/ SEOcopy

    Matt was very clear, to the point and a much better speaker. Chris on the other hand sounds like a snot nosed punk. Basically a spoiled kid that whines too much about his contribution…He needs to give it a rest and play with the rest of the community. I’m a Thesis user but I know there are other great themes. Will I promote Thesis moving forward? No cuse now I know he whines… & I dislike men who whine. So Chris STFU and add to the community by doing the right thing. Just my 0.2ç

  • http://level343.com/article_archive/ SEOcopy

    Matt was very clear, to the point and a much better speaker. Chris on the other hand sounds like a snot nosed punk. Basically a spoiled kid that whines too much about his contribution…He needs to give it a rest and play with the rest of the community. I'm a Thesis user but I know there are other great themes. Will I promote Thesis moving forward? No cuse now I know he whines… & I dislike men who whine. So Chris STFU and add to the community by doing the right thing. Just my 0.2ç

  • Simon

    The crux of Matt’s argument, throughout the debate, is that “you must respect the licence”. That’s fine, but it doesn’t answer the real question, which is what themes / plugins for WordPress must be GPL (ie. where is the line drawn).

    I’ve seen a lot of people comment on this debate and say that Matt came across better than Chris, but I would have been very interested to see what people thought if they had read a summary of the main arguments put forward by both sides, instead of listening to it as a debate.

    Matt certainly comes across as calmer (hence the “spoiled kid” accusations levelled at Chris), but I wouldn’t have said that Matt easily won the argument in terms of substantive arguments. Chris is right when he says there are a lot of question marks over the issue.

    Chris does go a bit over the top at times (top 3 people in the history of WordPress!), but that’s beside the point. Again, I think it’s actually the side-issues that have lost Chris the battle in the eyes of the community; they seem to have gotten greater coverage than the substantive issue.

    It’s very easy for people to turn on the guy who is selling something, when the other side is advocating the GPL (ie. free distribution) approach, without questioning where the boundaries really are. The facts are still far from clear on this issue.

    • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

      Good points Simon and indeed they are concerns I have thought over but admittedly not investigated properly. I will definately give this some investigation though as it will certainly affect wordpress and indeed, any business decisions I or others make when deciding to work on the open source or wordpress platform.

  • Simon

    The crux of Matt's argument, throughout the debate, is that “you must respect the licence”. That's fine, but it doesn't answer the real question, which is what themes / plugins for WordPress must be GPL (ie. where is the line drawn).

    I've seen a lot of people comment on this debate and say that Matt came across better than Chris, but I would have been very interested to see what people thought if they had read a summary of the main arguments put forward by both sides, instead of listening to it as a debate.

    Matt certainly comes across as calmer (hence the “spoiled kid” accusations levelled at Chris), but I wouldn't have said that Matt easily won the argument in terms of substantive arguments. Chris is right when he says there are a lot of question marks over the issue.

    Chris does go a bit over the top at times (top 3 people in the history of WordPress!), but that's beside the point. Again, I think it's actually the side-issues that have lost Chris the battle in the eyes of the community; they seem to have gotten greater coverage than the substantive issue.

    It's very easy for people to turn on the guy who is selling something, when the other side is advocating the GPL (ie. free distribution) approach, without questioning where the boundaries really are. The facts are still far from clear on this issue.

  • http://www.justinparks.com Justin Parks

    Good points Simon and indeed they are concerns I have thought over but admittedly not investigated properly. I will definately give this some investigation though as it will certainly affect wordpress and indeed, any business decisions I or others make when deciding to work on the open source or wordpress platform.