There has been a very heated discussion going on about whether Thesis the WordPress theme developed by Chris Pearson should be licensed under GPL. There are well over 100 posts and articles dissecting this so I’m not going to go into all of that since guys and gals much better qualified than me already did this. First you might want to head over to Mixergy.com where Andrew Warner got Matt Mullenweg and Chris Pearson together via Skype to discuss this issue and hopefully bring them closer to an agreement (That did not happen). Then you might want read Mark Jaquith’s excellent explanation of why themes that are created for WordPress specifically must be released under the same license as WordPress. Drew Blas took it a step further and actually analyzed Thesis code to see how Thesis is coded and whether it should be released under GPL. And just so I’m not accused of being one sided you might also want to read dissenting opinions on why Thesis and themes in general don’t have to be released with the same license as WordPress, and an excellent counterpoint by Drew Blas.
Okay so now that you’ve listened and read all these different opinions and “facts” (You did right?) let’s discuss the ramifications of all this. The question as to whether a theme (Thesis or any other) must be released under GPL is…most probably. Yes anyone on the side of GPL will say definitely but until a judge decides this in a court of law I personally can only say “Most probably”. But let’s put all that aside.
Matt Mullenweg, who by many accounts is a really nice and likable guy is under tremendous amount of pressure here. His back was pushed against the wall very publicly when Chris Pearson pretty much said “Sue me, I’m not changing anything”[paraphrasing]. What should Matt do now? This is not an easy decision to make. No one, not Matt not Chris not anyone wants to go to court and possibly spend millions of dollars to just prove a point. But does Matt Mullenweg have the option of not going to court? His decision can have a profound effect on not only the WordPress community but open source software as a whole, and that’s dangerous.
Imagine for a moment that Matt decides to be the bigger man and just walks away from this debate. By doing so he opens the door wide open for other developers to do as they please, “Screw WordPress and Matt they are not going to do anything anyway so I’ll release my theme/software/plugin/OS/Application under any license I damn well please”. People will do what they want if they are not help accountable. Not only that but if Matt Mullenweg decides not to pursue this it could be taken as a sign that he may not be 100% convinced that he can win. If that’s the case then maybe those that say that themes are not GPL are right after all.
The losers in all this would be the entire WordPress community and the end user especially. Open source works, GPL works, it must defended and stood up for. Take a look at any closed source environment like Windows. How many completely free applications and programs are available? Now look at Linux. How many completely free applications and programs are available? If you really aren’t aware you can download and use thousands of Linux based applications free of charge. There’s even an app inside any Linux distribution that allows you to search and install apps right from your desktop. That’s the power of open source, it gives us, the users, freedom of choice as well as freedom to create, recreate, improve upon and redistribute without any fear of reprisal, for that is the whole point of GPL.
I’m not arguing whether themes are GPL or not here, my point is that this needs to be resolved and developers and the community need to know that what they are doing and how they are doing it is in fact the right way.
Automattic the parent company behind WordPress.com and other applications has received millions of dollars in funding from such heavyweights as True Ventures, Polaris and The New York Times (as well as some others). You can bet that these companies are watching closely to see how Matt Mullenweg handles the situation. Now don’t all jump on me, I’m not saying that Thesis is going to have a million dollar impact on WordPress by not abiding by the WordPress license agreement, but Matt’s investors are going to want to see him act decisively and aggressively. His decisions can have a profound effect on future investors and how he is viewed as a businessman at the head of a multimillion corporation.
As I said before this is not a simple decision for Matt Mullenweg to make and I think Chris Pearson is savvy enough to know this. It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
What do you think?
P.S. For those that are curious I will be moving to another theme as soon as I decide on which one to use. It’s not because I think Chris is wrong per se but since I am using WordPress I feel that I should respect the community and use a GPL licensed theme. I’m hoping this is only temporary.
