[Gaystoryman]

Hey There

You use Thesis right? You might be interested in this little discussion going on, where WP may sue the theme developer, due to his not licensing THESIS under the GPL stuff, PLUS it seems, to have been brought about, by a SECURITY HOLE IN THESIS [unconfirmed at the moment]

[Tigger]

this should make interesting reading, although considering how long Thesis has been around and and the amount of copies sold I really see this being anything that will hold water!

[Gaystoryman]

Actually think it will, given that it relies on WP for its ability to even exist, and if the head honcho at WP is upset with you, it is like Google telling you they hate your sites. and we all know how that winds up ending

If he sues, it'll be messy, and he does have some good points about the theme and the ethics involved. I wouldn't want to be the theme guy right now.

[gonzogone]

now I'm confused... if Thesis can get sued for not being under GPL, where does that leave a thousand other themes, add ons and such for WP that are fee for service and couldn't exist without WP? Heck, there is a customized Adult CMS that is built as a plugin to WP.

Are they going to be in the position of simply waiting for WP to get around to sueing them too?

[Gaystoryman]

I think the point is that most of those other 'premium' themes and plugins, are acknowledging the GPL portion that they are based on, which THESIS refuses to do. And that is a huge difference, but heck, me not a lawyer, but it does seem a bit stupid to not acknowledge the source. I mean it is no different than someone who makes a movie based on a book, you acknowledge that the book inspired the movie, which is only fair.

PLUS, the theme is for use on Wordpress, so why not acknowledge the code that makes it all work, the core of it, is from Wordpress?

[gonzogone]

no doubt, I'm not the right person to talk about the legal aspects of that. Seems a little silly if all that may be needed is an acknowledgment of the GPL, but... ain't me in the middle of it...

[VoyGeorge]

Seems odd to me. Downstreaming the GPL to templates and add-ons isn't usually required if they only use the official API, which is the WordPress Codex. As long as there is no WordPress code in the product you shouldn't need to license under the GPL.

So I guess Thesis uses WordPress code, which is a no-no for GPL compliance, and the Thesis developer should know this.

[gonzogone]

WordPress Theme Thesis Maker Backs Down, Adopts GPL

Chalk this one up as a victory for the free software movement: Thesis, the wildly popular proprietary WordPress theme from developer/designer Chris Pearson, is now available under a split GPL, the license that makes it possible to alter and redistribute this software as you see fit.

Pearson’s decision marks the end of a high-drama clash between him and Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress (WordPress) and of Automattic, which runs WordPress.com and a handful of related software. Some folks wondered if the battle of words might end in a battle of legal precedent as Mullenweg struggled to preserve free software principles and Pearson struggled to maintain control over his highly successful software.

Thesis caused a bit of a ruckus when it was first released a couple years ago; being built on WordPress and using the WordPress plugin API (GPL software), the theme was supposedly subject to the same share-and-share-alike principles and should have been released under the same GPL.

WordPress Theme Thesis Maker Backs Down, Adopts GPL

[Tigger]

it was the only outcome really

thankfully the Thesis blog I have is a vod one and had it not been resolved loosing that wouldn't have been a problem the rate vod is dropping