Comments on: WPMU monetization strategy: microsites

By: Roger Benningfield

Roger Benningfield — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:15:16 +0000

Aziz: Does (a) WordPress call the theme/plugin, or does (b) the theme/plugin call WP? Can the theme/plugin directly access WP’s internal data structures? If the answers are (a) and “yes”, there isn’t a lotta room for interpretation, IMO.

I’m not big on the GPL, myself… it brings too many complications for my taste. But I just don’t see how it doesn’t apply to themes and plugins.

By: Donncha O Caoimh

Donncha O Caoimh — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:04:23 +0000

Aziz – I’m certain it hasn’t happened. Developers do the best they can but I’m comparing it to the web designers who want to keep their super-duper-fabulous theme proprietary and release an ugly one under the GPL.

By: Aziz Poonawalla

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:54:58 +0000

Donncha, I don’t think that the WP themes and plugins ecosystem has suffered – it seems pretty healthy to me, far more so than the Dfrupal ecosystem (which is WP’s closest competitor in terms of developer interest). The scenario you describe where designers were “hoarding” code seems unlikely for te simple reason that it would already be happening if it were likely. Plus, any deveooper who “hoards” code would rapidly find themselves forking WP over time as they drifted further from the stable trunk. The high frequency release cycle of WP tends to keep everyone invested in the open nature of the core code. But I’m not a WP developer so I cant say for certain; as one of teh core contributors yourself you obviously have a far better idea of whats going on than I do. Do you see the rate of code contribution from developers tapering off as the theme and plugin market expands?

Note that I am not unsypathetic to the GPL argument (the sole plugin I wrote for WPMU is GPL, too). I just think that theres a valid difference of opinion here and that ultimately it rests on the developer’s conscience. Apatr from the infestation of themes with sponsored links a while back (which were excluded by fiat, a decision i approved of), I think the community overall has been pretty conscientous in giving back. How would WP have grown and been so successful otherwise?

Roger – I think that whether a plugin is simply using an implicit API of WP, or is a subroutine of WP, is a matter of interpretation. I respect the other view but I cant agree with it.

By: Roger Benningfield

Roger Benningfield — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:32:12 +0000

Aziz: An independent piece of code that attaches to WP via an API (metaWeblog, for example) doesn’t need the GPL. A theme or plugin, in contrast, is a subroutine of WP, with direct access to WP’s internal variables, and should be GPL’d.

Now, it wouldn’t be impossible to create add-ins for WP while still avoiding the GPL. For example, WP’s Atom API support could be broadened to expose most of WP’s internal functions and variables via REST… the results won’t be as performant as using a native plugin or theme, but it would work, and be totally legit. And with enough caching, who knows… performance might now even be a huge issue.

By: Donncha O Caoimh

Donncha O Caoimh — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:08:57 +0000

Aziz – doesn’t the GPL have a clause for operating system kernels because of this? Linux is exempt from this viral nature of the GPL, but WordPress isn’t. If WordPress was LGPL licensed any sort of proprietary software could use it’s API.

This reminds me of Sleepycat software who used a GPL compatible license to sell their Berkeley DB. You could download it and use the db system for free but if you wanted to distribute it you had to distribute your application source code under the same license. Great for GPLed software.

If that didn’t suit, you could pay Sleepycat for a proprietary license as they owned the copyright to the db system, and then ship your product as a binary! No single entity owns the source code of WordPress so such a thing cannot happen. Plugins and themes have to be GPLed if distributed.

See http://www.winterspeak.com/columns/102901.html

As for the stylesheets and images used in themes, you’re right. It seems the consensus is that they don’t have to be GPLed, and the community is the worse off for it.

I wonder what would themes designers and users say if they thought WordPress contributors were checking in second-rate code into the project and keeping the good stuff for their own clients and businesses. Up in arms I’m sure.

By: Aziz Poonawalla

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:17:44 +0000

@Elad – to be fair, there are themes such as Alex King’s Carrington project and Chris Pearson’s Thesis that are “frameworks” not just collections of CSS. Another example would be K2. Some of these are free and others are not.

By: Aziz Poonawalla

Aziz Poonawalla — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:16:30 +0000

Donncha, I agree that a theme has to have a function call to wordpress core functions, but that means it is basically using the wordpress API. Thats not the same thing as using actual wordpress code. I think there is a genuine separation there. If not, then the entire paid theme marketplace would have to be GPLed. Not to mention any program or software that uses an API of an open source project.

By: Elad Salomons

Elad Salomons — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:24:19 +0000

@Donncha: the php theme files may be GPLed but the style.css file has no WordPress code in it and it can licensed differently. Don’t forget that the main design is in the css file.

By: Donncha O Caoimh

Donncha O Caoimh — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:53:10 +0000

Aziz – your theme or plugin will use WordPress functions and won’t work without WordPress so they should be GPLed. Just because themes haven’t always been GPLed doesn’t mean those theme designers are right.

A theme will have the “while (have_posts()) : the_post();” loop to print posts. That’s WordPress code it’s using and won’t work in a proprietary CMS without changing those commands. It’s a feature of the GPL that the theme must be released as GPLed code.

I agree that running an MU site is a service though, but making money from it is as challenging as from any other site.