[wp-hackers] Plugin License Excluding Spam

[Otto]

Ahh, true that. Fair enough, I was looking for the "or any later
version" boilerplate in the readme and didn't find it, so I assumed
that the license.txt was the only allowable version.

Nevertheless, I would avoid using GPLv3, because it *is* incompatible
with GPLv2 software, and many people will not use it because of the
excessive restrictions it imposes on usage (not just distribution,
like the GPLv2).

-Otto



On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Jennifer Hodgdon
<yahgrp at poplarware.com> wrote:
> Otto wrote:
>>
>> - WordPress is licensed under the GPLv2. The GPLv3 is not compatible,
>> because of the additional restrictions it imposes. There's no code or
>> documentation I'm aware of that allows you to up-version with
>> WordPress and the license, so AFAICT, the GPLv3 is not an acceptable
>> license for WordPress plugins and/or themes.
>
> I think you are wrong there. The readme.html file in the WordPress distro
> says:
>
> "WordPress is released under the GPL (see license.txt)."
>
> license.txt says:
>
> "If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may
> choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation."
>
> WordPress does not specify a version number (except I do see a GPL v2
> reference in xmlrpc.php, and there are specific licenses on some individual
> 3rd-party files that are included in WordPress), as far as I can see.
>
> So you may choose any version of the GPL, by my reading. I'm not an
> attorney...
>
>  --Jennifer
>
> --
> Jennifer Hodgdon * Poplar ProductivityWare
> www.poplarware.com
> Drupal, WordPress, and custom Web programming
>
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
>