So I have some thoughts after reading up on the Thesis/WordPress situation and watching the debate between Chris and Matt. If you need to catch up I found this summary quite good mainly because of the debate video is found there.
What’s up?
So the problem is that Chris Pearson creator of the premium WordPress theme Thesis and Matt Mullenweg, founder/creator of WordPress disagrees about if the themes and plugins for WordPress also needs to be GPL licensed. And theny are lot alone many developers follows this debate and have their roots for the different sides. It all basically boils down to different interpretations of the GPL license (in regards to if a theme needs to inherit the GPL license) and as I understand there is not a certain definition of this yet. For now there is just the opinion of each individual or organisation. And this is why this is so interesting. The outcome of this situation could have a big consequence for CMS that uses GPL license or the theme creators. I say could because it may not be this situation that triggers the final legal definition.
Comments on the debate
I understand both Chirs and Matts side of the situation. Chis is defending his work and livelihood, being completely convinced that he can have his own license on Thesis. And Matt on the other side can not let what he believes is a violation of the license just pass by for other to follow. These sides are not crazy. They are reasonable if you look at their respective views. The one thing I don’t understand is how reluctant Chris is to use GPL even if it would not compromise his work and income. Matt points to that almost all other themes is using GPL and pointing to examples that uses and actually change to GPL and doing very well. Matt even said he would point people to Chris and Thesis if it was changed to GPL. He still would not consider it. Only if he by himself found out that GPL could be used, would he would change. I just didn’t get the extreme reluctance. But I understand that he wants to fight for his opinion and not give in. If that is the best thing I can not say. Maybe in the end he should have or maybe he will go out with his flag up high. We will have to see how it ends.
What to think?
I am not sure what to think about this situation. For now it is just one opinion against the other, backed up by different lawyer or organisations. That being said I find these articles interesting:
http://perpetualbeta.com/release/2009/11/why-the-gpl-does-not-apply-to-premium-wordpress-themes/
http://perpetualbeta.com/release/2009/12/why-the-gplderivative-work-debate-doesnt-matter-for-wordpress-themes/
http://apeatling.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/thesis-and-the-gpl/ http://jane.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/thesiswp/
What do you think? Don’t be shy, feel free to express it in the comments.
So now what?
I could only guess what would happen next and I do not what to speculate too much about it. It could go to curt and be settled there. The outcome will in that case certainly be interesting. Until then we can not much more than speculate, make summaries and express our opinion on twitter and blogs;)