All posts filed under: GPL

The GPL and nulled plugins

Published by Richard Best

When a leading proponent of open source says something about the GPL, people notice When one of the world’s leading proponents of open source software and the GPL makes pronouncements of what the GPL does and does not allow, many people will have a look and some may take it on blind faith to be correct. It’s pretty important, therefore, that what such proponents say about the GPL is in fact correct. On 1 November, one of the world’s leading proponents of open source software and the GPL said this (the second paragraph is referring to litigation in the Netherlands by, it seems, Automattic and WooCommerce, against Festinger Vault): “A quick followup on my prior conversation with Theo. During that chat, I talked briefly about a trademark infringer that was also distributing nulled plugins. I said “Not illegal. Legal under the GPL. But they weren’t changing the names. They were selling their customers Pro Plugins with the licensing stuff nulled out.” I want to be clear that my reference to legality and GPL was solely …

The ACF>SCF ‘fork’ and legal risk

Published by Richard Best

What the… Just when the community thought things couldn’t get more disruptive – because they’re already mighty disruptive – they have. Automattic’s CEO has forked (or purported to fork) the incredibly popular Advanced Custom Fields plugin on the WordPress.org plugins repository, calling the new version ‘Secure Custom Fields’. Advanced Custom Fields is a WP Engine plugin (WP Engine acquired it from Delicious Brains in 2022), so no surprises as to why he has done this. Freedom of speech Before I proceed, let me say something of freedom of speech. I anticipate (rightly or wrongly) that MM/Automattic’s defence to some of the allegations against it in WP Engine’s court filing will be premised on first amendment / freedom of speech grounds. Fair enough. By contrast, we are seeing people in the WordPress community, who are exercising their right to freedom of speech to comment on what they’re seeing unfold, being shut out of WordPress.org communities, Slack groups, and Twitter/X feeds, or otherwise being spoken to with hostility, even when they are trying to help. That doesn’t …

Thoughts on the attack on WP Engine

Published by Richard Best

Downward criticism of community members The WordPress community is no stranger to one of the project’s founders criticising those he considers to be behaving egregiously. Those of us who have been using WordPress for a long time will recall the strong and sometimes prolonged criticism of the likes of Chris Pearson, Envato, GoDaddy, and others. But arguably they all pale in comparison to the attack on WP Engine at the most recent WordCamp in Portland, Oregon (made all the more bizarre by the fact that WP Engine was sponsoring the event and had numerous staff attending). In days gone by, most criticisms arose from perceived violations of the GPL or other open source licensing arrangements. In many cases, the criticisms were understandable. If you use WordPress and violate the GPL (by, for example, not licensing modifications appropriately when you distribute them), then you shouldn’t be surprised if someone complains, even loudly. The attack on WP Engine The attack on WP Engine was of a completely different ilk. After explaining the ‘tragedy of the commons’, Matt …

Taking GPL’d code proprietary…

Published by Richard Best

The question It’s been a while since I’ve dropped a post here. Hell, I even bypassed the entire coming into effect of the GDPR (though I have written about it elsewhere: The GDPR and its practical global effect, whether we like it or not). Life gets busy sometimes. Anyway, yesterday I received an interesting question through the Ask me a question page of this site. The question was this (I’ve removed some names to make the example more generic): “Let’s say a code project has been released under the GPL for years. The original author of the project (let’s call the author Charlie) or his or her company (let’s call it CharlieCo) wants to take it under a proprietary licence. Is Charlie or CharlieCo allowed to do this, given that the original work was released under the GPL (and has been licensed under the GPL for ages) and given that the original author has accepted contributions under that licence?” When asked this question, most lawyers practising in this field can be expected to say things …

Unsplash GPL-compatibility concern should be a red herring

Published by Richard Best

The question A reader of WP and Legal Stuff asks: “There’s quite a big debate going on at the moment about Unsplash’s new license. See: https://wptavern.com/unsplash-updates-its-license-raises-gpl-compatibility-concerns It would be great to a get a lawyer’s input on whether the new license is GPL compatible or not. Is it possible for individual photos to be GPL while having a restriction on the collection as a whole?” The short answer is that the new Unsplash licence imposes a prohibition on a certain kind of use of the licensed images that the GPL would not impose, but it shouldn’t matter because the GPL doesn’t require images bundled in a distributed theme folder to be GPL-licensed and nor should this be required for themes submitted to the WordPress.org theme repository’. There is, however, a potentially important respect in which I suggest the new Unsplash licence needs to be clarified to create greater certainty for the developers of products, like themes, that contain the images as discrete files, so those developers can be confident that the end users of their products …

How to apply the GPL to your themes and plugins (and avoid getting in the shi*)

Published by Richard Best

Introduction “I wish this stuff could be easier!” Have you ever found yourself saying or thinking this or otherwise cursing the ins and outs of applying the GPL to your themes or plugins? Have you ever been worried that, perhaps, you’re not doing what the GPL requires or that you’ve overlooked a WordPress.org requirement? From a wide range of stories and comments I’ve seen around the web, I think Jamie’s story is one that rings true for many. So, if you’ve answered yes to one of these questions, you’re far from being alone and this post is for you. “How do I apply and comply with the GPL correctly?” If you feel this way, it’s not surprising. Indeed, if you’re only just getting into open source or releasing your first theme or plugin, I’d say it’s to be expected. I say that because not only do you need to understand a legally-oriented copyright licence but, if you wish to make your products available on WordPress.org, you also need to get to grips with the WordPress.org theme and plugin guidelines. And …

“I’d rather see [an] attorney’s attention spent … on clarity and brevity”

Published by Richard Best

WordPress, Wix and the GPL The Wix controversy, if I can call it that, has stirred up quite a bit of emotion in the WordPress and wider tech and open source communities. I’ve given my thoughts on what I see as the main issues in my previous post “Some thoughts on the Wix mobile app story (updated)”. In reading a wide range of comments on the various news and blog articles on this story, it strikes me that many people don’t understand the GPL, either due to its complexity at the margins (and I assure you that, at the margins, it can bamboozle lawyers too) or, in some cases, because they haven’t read it. Then, in reading further through various comments, one comment on the WP Tavern story stood out to me. Lisa League wrote: “Spending time, money, and attention on court diverts it to attorneys instead of that valuable time money, and attention spent on software. … … this is where I’d rather see attorney’s attention spent – on clarity and brevity where possible in …

Some thoughts on the Wix mobile app story (updated)

Published by Richard Best

The story Perhaps not surprisingly, Matt’s recent post “The Wix Mobile App, a WordPress Joint” caught my eye. Indeed, it caught both eyes. I’ve read through his post and I’ve read the Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami’s prompt reply, “Dear Matt Mullenweg: an open letter from Wix.com’s CEO Avishai Abrahami” as well as a Wix engineer’s reply in “How I Found Myself Accused of Stealing Code from WordPress”. The key points, it seems to me, are these: Matt has said that “Wix copied WordPress without attribution, credit, or following the license. The custom icons, the class names, even the bugs. You can see the forked repositories on GitHub complete with original commits from Alex and Maxime, two developers on Automattic’s mobile team.” Matt has also said: “This explicitly contravenes the GPL, which requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on whatever you release publicly built on top of GPL code. The GPL is what has allowed WordPress to flourish, and that let us create this code. Your app’s editor is built with stolen code, so your …

Selling themes yourself and on ThemeForest but with inconsistent licensing

Published by Richard Best

With apologies for the radio silence for the last 5-6 months (for a while there life was just too hectic), I’m finally getting around to revving up WP and Legal Stuff again. This post will be pretty brief but addresses a phenomenon I’ve seen from time to time across the WordPress theme shop community. Here’s the scenario: you find a WordPress theme you really like on a theme shop’s website but, when you look at the licensing for the theme, it either limits what you can do with the theme or it’s a confusing conglomeration of terms that appear to have been plucked from an array of different sites and mashed together in the hope it’ll fly. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I’ve deliberately not bought themes from theme shops like this because the lack of attention to clear licensing doesn’t give me much confidence in the overall soundness of the business,  its attention to detail and its customer centricity (or lack of it). But lo and behold, later you discover that this very …

Discouraging public redistribution of commercial themes and plugins – poll results

Published by Richard Best

Background Back on 4 August of this year, I published a post called Theme and plugin shops – Discouraging public redistribution – User poll.  The poll that was included in the post sought people’s views on the reselling of commercial themes and plugins. It did this because people’s views on this issue are relevant to the inclusion of a contractual mechanism I’d proposed for theme/plugin shop terms of use. The contractual mechanism I’d proposed would seek to discourage purchasers of a commercial theme or plugin from making the theme or plugin available on a website for download by others (whether for free or a charge), even when the theme or plugin is 100% GPL-licensed. The proposed term would say that, if a customer decides to make your commercial theme or plugin available on a website for download by others, you may exercise a right to deactivate their access keys (if that’s how you’ve set things up) and to terminate their access to support and updates. I explained why, in my view, this sort of clause …