WordPress: the World of GPL Violations
It seems that the world WordPress themes is chock full of questionable use of GPL code. I really wonder if there is someone I can report this to. Let me give an example. There is a site that sells a “membership” to download their themes. Great, always happy to see someone getting paid for their hard work. But then I read about the license on this individual’s work. So just like so many other WordPress themes, it is questionable whether or not you can create a theme at all that isn’t under a GPL compatible license. What was even more shocking was this bad English:
I reserves the right to change or modify current Terms of Use with no prior notice.
Sorry, but if you give me a copy with a particular license, you cannot change it. Even if you write this blurb on your website. But I guess it’s enough to intimidate most Web users.
And now, for the blatant GPL violation:
Several themes also make use of TimThumb, a script created by Darren Hoyt. This file, timthumb.php, is released under the GPL, and retains its respective license as mentioned in the file itself. This file is not governed by the above license, and can be redistributed under the rules of the GPL.
Really?! So now you’re actually going as far as to distribute GPL code along with your code, that your code depends on, and NOT put it under the GPL? I really hope that Darren Hoyt gave you permission to do that.
UPDATE: I just took a look at the script, and it’s now under an MIT license. It still doesn’t excuse the behavior of someone who obviously believes or used it when it was under the GPL.
Links
Categories: Computer, WordPress
1 Comment »
« Fix for Freshy2 (2.0.6) on WordPress 2.7 | Home | For Windows Users Who Want to Try Linux »
April 25th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Hi Angelo,
You can report possible violations to the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
Details and explanations are available from: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-violation.html
- Open Source Compliance Dude