wp-hackers angst about some company repackaging WP and selling it on without explicitly stating what it is.
Whatever the morals of this, the code itself remains open-source by virtue of being PHP and, you know, editable in Notepad; so as long as they keep some form of credit tucked away in a random text file nobody ever reads, you can’t touch them. It’s GPL, you have no rights. The developers are fine with this (who needs intellectual property when you have venture capital?) so I’m not sure why anyone else needs to worry about it.
Alan 10:16 pm on June 6, 2006 Permalink |
It’s all mastabatory. GPL lets them sell the product, and the supposed GPL-by-association with plugins lets them bundle the plugins. End story. lol
sunburntkamel 3:07 pm on June 7, 2006 Permalink |
seriously. it’s impressive how few people actually understand the GPL.
back to your own misgivings about the GPL, did you ever get around to checking out canvas, now that it’s downloadable? it seems to just be a plugin, i don’t see any modified core files.
Mark Jaquith 5:04 am on June 8, 2006 Permalink |
GPL misunderstanding is all too common. It’s not about Communism. It’s about freedom. Yeah, including the freedom to make a profit. Really, most GPL software that is sold isn’t about the software… it’s about the services and the support that back it up.
wank 2:57 pm on June 8, 2006 Permalink |
My primary issue with Canvas is that it looks like it’s based off the widgets code. I don’t think you can extend a GPL plugin and then re-release it under a non-GPL-compatible licence. If they actually have rewritten widgets from scratch (and, again, I don’t think that approach would make any sense — why rewrite code that’s already there?) it’s open to argument whether it needs to be GPL because it relies on WP code. Several people think it doesn’t, but the developers persist in saying that it does.
It doesn’t look to me like Chameleon is violating any licence requirements at all, so if companies are stupid enough to pay them $6800 good luck to them.
drmike 8:17 pm on July 6, 2006 Permalink |
Dang, I can’t even read the Chameleon website. White text on neon red? Yuck.
Heck, I make money using WordPress.
And PHPNuke
And Gallery
And MySQL
And Horde
And SquirrelMail
And AWStats
And all of the other GPL softwares I use.
I don’t charge $6800 for them though.
Best thing to do is find places that are using the Chameleon package and point out to them how they’ve been ripped off. I bet you’ll get a few lawsuits.
drmike 9:10 pm on July 6, 2006 Permalink |
Bump: Feel free to delete.
wank 9:43 pm on July 6, 2006 Permalink |
Did you see Matt’s snide reply to their head honcho on wp-hackers today? About how everyone’s looking forward to seeing the plugins the guy didn’t say he had any intentions of releasing? That made me smile.
drmike 10:47 pm on July 6, 2006 Permalink |
I see them more as a Content provider. As I understand it, the folks behind Chameleon are doing the custom themes, the layout work, writing the site, etc.
Of course, even I wouldn’t be charging $6,800 for that.