It seems that Chris is loosing an opportunity to make “tons of money” under the GPL so why does Matt care?!

This whole thing is silly and the fact that it makes Chris look “bad” is even worse… Especially for Matt is worse as he points the finger to a good guy who did an awesome job with Thesis – and as you said is his right to charge for that.

And I really don't see how the WP community is suffering..?! Nobody is suffering coz Thesis costs money since there are other products out there for free. As long as people can choose free pr paid themes it's normal that developers could also chose too whether their work goes out for free or not.

I used to think Matt is a generous guy. The fact that he wants to dictate what WP software goes GPL feels like a dictatorship.

I stress the fact that the community is okay with Thesis being proprietary (and those who aren't okay with that and want to have it for free… well those are not cool – and I wonder how would they feel if their work, no matter what field, will fall under GPL all of a sudden).

Matt, stay cool as you used to be! Chris, keep doing an awesome job!

I am okay paying for stuff as well as taking it for free as long as the creator of that stuff gives it away for free. I don't use Thesis, I don't even use WordPress but I love honesty, common sense and business.

The next thing we may hear is that all content on WordPress is GPL… – take it, duplicate it, sell it as your own – it's on WP so is GPL….

Technically speaking the GPL only applies to the code, not to the images used.

So the theme developers can still issue a cease-and-desist if the theme is distributed by someone else without permission because of the images, javascript, and css files used…

We looked long and hard at the GPL issue and only recently put Headway under the GPL as a split/dual license.

As far as telling someone what license they should be using. If you look at license law, it is usually the case that a product built that communicates and works with another product, inherits that products license.

Let me just say, I am not in complete agreement that every piece of work is automatically brought under the other product's license. It is very clear this is a topic that has not been decided by the courts. If the WordPress vs. Thesis argument goes to court, perhaps we will have an answer once and for all. However, I hope it does not come to that. A court case , no matter the outcome is not going to be good for either WordPress nor Thesis.

What too many see with the GPL is that they should get the product for free. This is simply not the case. No where in the GPL is a developer not allowed to sell their product for money.

It is kind of ridiculous in comparison to the hundreds of developers out there that have contributed in there own ways. There are free plugins out there that have made more impact than Thesis – just because Pearson has made a thriving business for himself doesn't mean he's made a more noteworthy contribution to the WordPress community as a whole compared to the hundreds of plugin devs, theme devs and WP code contributors.

I don't think it is that beneficial to make WP sound like it is aggressive toward developers. It isn't. Thesis is a super small minority that breaks with GPL (headway already has switched). And to be quite honest, without an open license like GPL WordPress wouldn't have grown to the point it is. Matt has tried for over 2 years to persuade Chris Pearson and he doesn't want to sue, that's why I think he's doing everything he can to persuade Chris through other forms (he was very passive up until recent weeks). Whether it is an effective tactic is another matter.

Keep in mind that Matt is also protecting the integrity of what has made WP a great open community and all of its contributors (that embrace the philosophy of WordPress). If you listen to the Mixergy interview Matt's tweets are more understandable. If they were hostile, they would have sued two years ago and Thesis would never have enjoyed anywhere near its success it has today. For a better understanding of Pearsons general attitude toward WordPress, listen to the Mixergy interview.