…even a theme or plugin that entirely dependens on WordPress to run at all, or simply improves WordPress in some way, would not be a derivative work and the GPL would not apply. For the vast majority of themes I’ve seen, the GPL would not apply because the theme is not, in my opinion, a derivative work. (In fact, if any one thing “incorporates” another, it’s most likely WordPress incorporating the theme, by use of the PHP include() call, rather than the other way around.)

According to the article, the copy of the GPL included in every download of WordPress even states that a derivative work is “a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications.” I’ve been making a similar argument for awhile now. I have yet to see a theme or plugin that actually incorporates WordPress into the plugin code itself, rather than being included by WordPress. It sounds to me like WordPress, if anyone, is the one doing the deriving…

Most WordPress themes and plugins are unique code for the most part, with a few hooks or function calls. I must have missed the memo that utilizing a third-party API makes your application a subset of the other software. (That would mean any desktop application would be a derivative of the operating system.)

A follow-up article from the same author makes the additional case that, whether the GPL applies or not, the Fair Use Doctrine can protect developers from the licensing terms of the original creator. The same laws that ensure you can quote part of an article without having to pay whatever licensing fee the publisher can cook up apply to software. As little, if any, WordPress code is used in a theme, it would likely be considered fair use.

I like some of the ideology behind the GPL, and quite a few software packages licensed under it. However, it seems that in this case one party is misusing (or misinterpreting) it to prevent small developers from earning a living while further enriching the WordPress community. For what reason, good intentioned or no, I cannot guess.

What exactly are they doing? They’ve set up a site reminiscent of the WordPress.org plugin repository, but for commercial plugins. As a customer, you can browse potentially useful plugins, and pay a flat fee (which the author chooses) to download the files. You can also opt to pay a subscription fee to gain access to an exclusive support forum, and instant access to upgrades to the plugin. (Those who pay the one-time fee instead of subscribing have to pay for the upgrades.) The plugins are all GPL, as WP Plugins requires it of all submissions.

As a plugin developer, you can put your plugins up for sale for a price you choose. You set the download price, and a subscription price if you wish to offer the option, enter a description, and then upload the plugin. WP Plugins takes a 10% cut of the sales, and you keep the rest.

What do you think? Is this a good option for commercial plugins to do with? It certainly takes a lot of worries away from individual developers, and could potentially put a lot of plugins in one easy to find place. It doesn’t necessarily seem too bad for the consumer either. I think it’s interesting, and I’ll be watching the site to see how things develop.

Theme developers have already started to establish businesses doing this, and I don’t think plugin developers are far behind. I’ve been considering this strategy a bit lately, and I know Joost de Valk has been as well. The question is: How profitable would such a move be?

Of course, we plugin authors get to host our own plugins on wordpress.org, and we can get links back to our site etc. But where’s the page for commercially supported GPL WordPress PLUGINS Matt? Don’t you think it’s time you started treating the plugin authors the same way as the theme authors? Or do we have to start a theme war for that first?

On the GPL, Themes, Plugins & Free [Yoast]

Theme developers seem to get more attention than plugin developers, and have for a long time. It’s sad. There are a lot of amazing plugins out there (including mine, of course…), but their developers are by and large not as well-off financially as the theme developers. You have giants like WooThemes selling $80 themes, that are now GPL compliant, but the plugin developers are pretty much just collecting a few donations here and there.

How many plugins do you have installed? Can you imagine how much time and effort goes into each of them? Would WordPress be the same without All in One SEO Pack, WP Super Cache, WP-PageNavi, or WP-Polls? Can you imagine how much time is spent answering support emails? A lot.

Now I’m in an interesting situation, I spend time developing my WP125 plugin, which is closing in on 30,000 downloads as I write this, and far more time answering the daily support emails that pour in. People are using this ad management plugin to monetize their sites with paid ads or affiliate banners, but what am I getting out of all the work I do on it? A few donations here and there, but I can go for a few months sometimes without seeing a single $10 0r $20 payment coming in.

Obviously I’d like to get a bit more out of my work, so I can invest more time improving the plugin. I’m currently thinking out a strategy to take WP125 commercial, while remaining GPL compliant and keeping the same great features available for free to WordPress users. A bit more support from the WordPress project would be welcome though.

The discussion around this always seems to evolve into “open source” versus “author protection”. As Alex King pointed out in one of his posts, theme authors should be aware of what the GPL license exposes them too, while it provides freedom for basically everyone else.

I’m not by any means against freedom and open source. I’ve been preaching about the power of WordPress and the wonder that it is, but what I love more is to see a protection system for those authors that make a living out of releasing quality themes and plugins for WordPress. Somewhere along the way, in our quest for “freedom” we forgot how hard it is to earn our living, how hard it is to learn the things we now use to feed our families.

I have a similar position. I like the GPL as much as anyone who contributes to the WordPress community, and I appreciate it’s provisions for paid software, but as nice as that sounds in print, it doesn’t always work out that well in real life.

My Take on the WordPress Themes & the GPL License [Blogsessive]

When Joost de Valk, a notable plugin developer, tweeted recently, this issue was brought to my attention again.

I’m getting tired of the discussions. Plugins for WordPress are GPL because WordPress IS GPL, there’s no question about it being otherwise.

Actually, if you look at the plugin repository guidelines, they only require that a plugin be “GPL-compatible.” The page links to a list of alternate licenses, many of which are compatible with the GPL. And that’s just to get into the repository….

Things really get interesting if you look at the GPL license in the WordPress Codex:

If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works.� But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

If I understand that correctly, the GPL is saying that the parts of a given script that are obviously independant from the main part are considered separate works, and don’t have to be licensed under the GPL unless distributed with the whole. That would mean a plugin would be a separate work, and would only have to be licensed under the GPL if it was distributed with WordPress itself.

Think about it. Is a plugin really a derivative of WordPress, in a GPL sense? A plugin is not distributed with WordPress, it is a separate entity that hooks into WordPress. Saying that “all WordPress must be GPL” is like saying that you can’t have commercial Linux software because they make use of the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GPL.

Of course, Mullenweg and company still have a right to deny non-GPL-compatible plugins from entering the repository, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.