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After an argument broke out on twitter between wordpress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Chris Pearson who created the popular wordpress theme Thesis, an interview was put in place by Mixergy to talk to both of these guys and get their views on the matter.
Matt feels that since WordPress is licensed th the GPL, all themes would be considered derivative works, and therefore should also be licensed under the GPL
Chris feels that the GPL doesn’t apply to him, and since he does not feel like it is what is best for him, then he should not have to comply.
I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know. I am inclined to side with Matt/Wordpress on the matter, but it is certainly complicated. It seems as though all Chris would have to do if he does not want his work to be under the GPL, he would just have to develop for some other platform that would allow whatever license that he chooses for his work. That is my opinion.
Anyhow, here is the interview: http://mixergy.com/chris-pearson-matt-mullenweg/
Here is a blog post on the subject that says Thesis may contain some WordPress code. Assuming this is the case, then the whole argument that it should/should not be GPL’d just because of using functions and whatnot like a plugin would be moot– and only those portions of the code which are “derivative” would need to be GPL’d (I think), which could mean the rest of his code could be whatever license he wishes.
Hopefully these guys will realize that and come to some kind of happy(ish) medium.
