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GPL

How WordPress Licensing Works (And Its Role In the Platform’s Success)

Filed Under

Beginners

Published

April 22, 2019

2 Comments

Most people with an interest in WordPress know about the GNU Public License (GPL). However, few understand exactly what it means and why it matters. While this knowledge isn’t pertinent to your day-to-day work in most cases, it can help to shape your overall mindset and approach to WordPress development. What’s more, the GPL is more central to WordPress’ (and by extension your) success than you may realize. The built-in freedom it provides lets users, site owners, and developers all work towards a better and stronger platform, one that’s suitable for many types of applications and projects. In this article, we’ll look […]

Explaining and Understanding the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Filed Under

Community

Published

November 2, 2016

14 Comments

Updated on November 2, 2016. It is common knowledge that WordPress is released under the terms of the GPL. However, time and again, controversies and confusions arise — be it the barring of ThemeForest sellers from WordCamps or the erstwhile debate between WordPress and Thesis, or the most recent WordPress/Wix debate, interpretations and implementations of the GPL across the internet tend to vary. While the end users are generally aloof from such debates, it can be a rather confusing situation for developers and designers alike, especially if they are creating and selling WordPress-related products or services, such as themes and […]

Wix Uses WordPress Code, Violates GPL

Filed Under

Community, Featured

Published

November 1, 2016

2 Comments

Microsoft vs. Apple, Oracle vs. Salesforce, Comcast vs. Verizon — rivalry is just a natural part of growth in the tech world. The recent controversy between WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Wix co-founder Avashai Abrahami is no exception. On Friday, Mullenweg alleged that the Wix application is built using stolen code, highlighting the similarities between the newly released mobile app and the WordPress editor. “This explicitly contravenes the GPL, which requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on whatever you release publicly built on top of GPL code,” Mullenweg said. Since the initial post, there has been follow up directly from Abrahami […]

Why GPL Is Important For You And Your Clients

Filed Under

Featured

Published

October 14, 2015

3 Comments

Everyone who does freelance work should have a basic set of requirements for prospective clients up front. These are things that will be in the contract if the relationship gets that far — they’re also things you need to know in the beginning. This is important because it saves time and helps create a clear, honest, and open relationship with your client, right from the start. It also helps filter out clients who are just not right for you. One of the prerequisites on my list, along with an insistence on using Slack for all client communications, is that I […]

The Second Freedom

Filed Under

Community, Featured

Published

February 5, 2014

1 Comment

If you drive down the street I grew up on too fast, my dad will yell at you. You will not hear him because you’re inside a car, and you’re already half way down the street, but my dad will still have yelled at you to slow down because he’s worried about the kids in the neighborhood. I grew up in a pretty tight-knit community that’s focused on its children. Unsafe drivers are a risk to one of the things the community of the neighborhood is built-on: children. Recently, in the WordPress community we had another site pop up re-selling […]

Who is Nathan Walker of WP Avengers?

Filed Under

Community

Published

November 27, 2013

26 Comments

Recently I received an email from a Nathan Walker of WP Avengers infamy—claiming that he now has 39 WooCommerce extensions available in his store for the holidays, and that the number will continue to grow. I’m on their mailing list because I like to know what’s going on in the WordPress community. Although I’m a developer by profession—and not an investigative journalist—I decided to pretend to be one for the day. I set out to try and find out who this guy really is, why he’s choosing to stay anonymous, and why he’s giving us this bogus name, Nathan Walker. […]

Easy to Start a Company, Hard to Build a Business

Filed Under

Community

Published

September 30, 2013

4 Comments

The other day I received an email about a new site (gplclub.org/club) that was offering over $2500 worth of premium WordPress themes, plugins and WooCommerce extensions. For $25. Then, two nights later, at our San Diego WordPress meetup, someone else stayed late to ask me about sites like these. Are they legal? What’s the hook? How do these work? My answer was pretty simple: It’s easy to start a company and hard to build a business. Easy to Start a Company Starting an online company requires 3 steps. First you have to pick a name. Then you need to get […]

You’ve been GPL’d!

Filed Under

News

Published

August 8, 2013

35 Comments

What WordPress and WooThemes can learn from Linux History I’d like to tell you all a story to give some perspective on recent events that have happened in the WordPress community. Once there was a smart Founder who wanted to change the world. He was a scrappy and outspoken 20-something who decided to build his own Open Source Software (OSS) project with a few friends because he knew he could design something that was better than the competition. He chose principle over profit and picked an OSS license that would protect the community over even his own interests. He handed over […]

New to the GPL? Well Here’s Your Primer!

Filed Under

Archives

Published

July 10, 2013

2 Comments

For those that are new to WordPress it can seem quite daunting when you begin to think about licensing, open source “rules,” and even etiquette that you may or may not want to follow. And in many ways you can get quickly confused as to what is merely opinion and what is factual and pragmatic. We’ve covered a lot in regards to the GPL historically so it might be worth going through the archives a bit to see what you can find. But a recent post by Ivycat may be a great place to start:

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