San Francisco (ip-192.com): Developers that extend the functionality of WordPress inherit the GNU General Public License (GPL), developer Matt Mullenweg says. In short, the license states that work derived from GPL licensed work can only be distributed under the same terms.
After review by various legal experts, Mullenweg uses the premium WordPress theme Thesis as an example of an alleged license violation. In an interview with Andrew Warner, owner of the website mixergy.com, Mullenweg said: "Thesis has stated publicly that they believe in a different interpretation of the GPL. The GPL doesn’t apply to them. That WordPress’ license doesn’t apply and they don’t need to follow it. That’s obviously harmful to the WordPress community and I would love them to join and be GPL."
According to Mullenweg, the issue is not that theme and plug-in developers have to offer their work for free. "You could even sell the theme itself," Mullenweg says. However, writing code and creating functionality on top of software distributed under the GPL license and not making this work available under the same license terms is violating the GPL, Mullenweg alleges. "…when you violate someone's license it is breaking the law. It’s a definition of breaking the law."
Hundreds of themes were already removed from the WordPress theme directory since they did not comply with GPL license requirements.
A video with the full audio of Warner’s interview is available here. The site has also a full transcript of the interview available.
Update: The Thesis WordPress theme is now in compliance and adheres to the GPL license terms. "Now, back to work. :) This has taken a lot of my time over the past few days and was going to consume more if it went forward," Mullenweg said on Twitter. "Thrilled, however, that Thesis is now legal and in compliance ..."
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