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Business Copyright Basics Licensing Open Source

Lewis Cowles
Lewis Cowles
74,902 Points
Posted by Lewis Cowles
Lewis Cowles
74,902 Points

One of the examples given on WordPress, I believe is incorrect

I'm quite sure that the statement that when you buy a premium theme, what you are paying for is the support is not correct, or even that close to being accurate, or correct. GPL has nothing to do with cost of works, it is to do with the freedoms of the end-user; and supports the notion that if derrivitive works are created of a paid-for piece of software, while all users who purchased may redistribute, this is not a way around the paid-for nature of the original licensing arrangement, and all derrivitive works will maintain all the terms of the original work.

I Know this is super pedantic, but I actually did a double-take when I heard the video; as this is something I have written the the FSF about, as my company is working towards releasing our software under a GPL license, allowing us to maintain it's commercial status, whilst giving more freedoms to our customers.

1 Answer

Denny Tang
Denny Tang
1,012 Points
Denny Tang
Denny Tang
1,012 Points

Hey Lewis... I'm a bit late to this but I also did a double-take when I heard that. I did some searching and found an explanation here: http://chrislema.com/gpl-themes-plugins/

Lewis Cowles
Lewis Cowles
74,902 Points
Lewis Cowles
Lewis Cowles
74,902 Points

Hey Danny!

Fantastic link, I really enjoyed reading it, and I think it's a lot more clear than the video was. I don't agree with Chris that it's the support that has value, not the code; as I think the thing I am using has to have a $ value, within a $ cost I am willing to pay sans-support, in order for me to infer any need for support. I also don't think cost or value are at all related, but that is probably a matter for a blog-post.