Is WordPress Getting Hostile With Developers?

We love WordPress. And, yes, we love the fact that it is free.

WordPress is also GPL. Thesis (the popular premium theme) is not GPL. Matt Mullenweg thinks it should be. The argument is that, because Thesis is a “derivative work” from WordPress, it is required to also use the GPL. There is a counter-argument, too, which says GPL doesn’t apply.

But, the debate got louder today and now there is even talk of Mullenweg suing over the issue.

Here’s my take…

Oh, GPL. Oh, How Confusing You Can Be.

Simply put, the WordPress platform and community benefits from a community of developers creating add-ons, whether they be free or commercial. The community benefits from having that option. I believe that trying to shame or force a developer to give their work away for free is not only wrong, but will harm WordPress.

There are a number of premium plug-ins that are quite good. I’ve also paid for WordPress themes. I am not a customer of Thesis, but I recognize why so many want to use it. Same goes for Headway. Do we actually want to use a platform where that kind of innovation is met with scorn by people who think everything should be free?

Or is “free” even the issue? I gotta say, it is rather confusing. Is it because Thesis contains some encrypted code? Plus, there is the whole debate about whether a theme is even a derivative work. A theme doesn’t modify anything with WordPress – it simply makes function calls that WordPress put there specifically for themes. If a theme developer extends the capability, using their OWN code, does the whole thing come under GPL just because he may have used these function calls?

Perhaps, ultimately, the GPL itself needs some sort of clarification. That whole “derivative works” clause seems to lead itself to problems. I don’t want to get into the arcane details of open source licensing, but GPL is, in my view, too restrictive. The “copyleft” restrictions are just too much. This is the very reason that PHP itself changed its license away from GPL starting with version 4. Otherwise, development on the PHP platform would be stifled because everything developed with PHP would be subject to these same issues. A BSD-style license just makes so much more sense.

I applaud people who develop on the GPL license. The Internet would be a very different (and worse) place without them. However, this whole idea of using it to force their will on others – that bothers me.

Getting Hostile With Developers?

Here’s what I see, though. I see a guy who put a lot of work into a product (Thesis) and decided he wanted to charge people to use it. To me, that seems like his right. Nobody has to get it if they don’t want to. WordPress provides plenty of hooks for such things. Thesis uses them to meet a strong demand in the marketplace.

And I see Mullenweg (at least judging from his Twitter account) essentially being a passive-aggressive snob, retweeting other people’s attacks on Thesis. What I see is Mullenweg trying to use a mob mentality to shame Chris Pearson into making Thesis GPL. This is not the way a professional acts, IMO.

Mullenweg is making WordPress development look like a pretty bad bet right now. And if this mentality goes so far as to stifle development of commercial add-ons for WordPress, that will be the beginning of the end of the “major platform” status of WordPress. Mark my words.

For people who will claim the GPL promotes freedom of choice, I think trying to shove the GPL down somebody’s throat is about everything BUT choice.

I love WordPress because of its flexibility. I LOVE the fact that there are so many plug-ins and themes available for it. I LOVE the fact that I have options to BUY more premium-level add-ons if I so choose. THAT’S choice.

I want to love WordPress for years to come. Please don’t screw it up.

If you’d like to chime in, I’d love to hear from you. The open source license scene is anything but easy to interpret.

UPDATE:
Not that I’m following this whole thing closely, but I happened upon another post written today by Jane (she works for Automattic) who gives another viewpoint on this, plus some backstory. Worth a read, for sure. I’ve never met Chris Pearson nor Matt Mullenweg. I can only judge what I saw Matt doing on Twitter today, and I thought it was pretty messed up. But, it usually takes two to tango, and apparently Chris is doing the jig, too, at times.

One thing is for sure, this debate comes down to a philosophy difference. Very fundamental. I’m not sure anything except a court case will truly resolve it. That said, I won’t hold my breath on that actually happening. But, if you’re at all thinking about doing non-GPL stuff on WordPress, realize Matt might gang up on you.

One thing seems clear: WordPress isn’t all that inviting to develop for anymore. I learned something about WordPress today, and as of today, I no longer look at the product the same way. Still a fan, but it smells.