[kwlug-disc] Wordpress themes must be GPL

[Darcy Casselman]

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 5:38 PM, Insurance Squared Inc.
<gcooke at insurancesquared.com> wrote:
> The folks at wordpress got into a twitter/interview/blogosphere argument
> with the developer of this theme, suggesting that because of the theme's
> association with wordpress, which is GPL, that therefore the theme must also
> be GPL (instead of $89 or whatever it was that he was charging.  I think I
> paid $150).

Semantic quibbling, perhaps, but I take some issue with the "instead
of."  There's nothing in the GPL that says you can't charge for your
work.  It just says that you must allow people to use, share,
understand and adapt the technology.

Allowing those freedoms makes it hard to force people to pay you,
sure, but I bristle at the idea that free software is a free lunch.
This guy should be applauded and rewarded for doing the right thing.

Darcy.