[wp-hackers] On Submitting Code

[Ryan Bilesky]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 5:17 AM, Jeremy Visser <jeremy at visser.name> wrote:

> ...Even without a code submission policy, it is 100% clear that all
> contributions to WordPress fall under the GPL. There is no doubt about
> that. The LICENSE.txt file is included with every copy of WordPress,
> which clearly talks about derivative works. A code contribution policy
> will not clarify that....


I disagree.  The GPL license talks about derivative works, but it depends on
what you constitute as derivative works.  I personally would not consider a
theme or a plugin a derivative work.  Now granted I am not a lawyer, and idk
if there has been some sort of precedent set in some court case about what
constitutes a derivative work.  But in my mind, a pluigin or theme is its
own unique work, the fact that it connect to a GPL based software don't make
it derivative.  Just like if someone wrote code for some purpose and
licensed it under GPL and released it as a DLL, if I write a software
program and I use that DLL, the DLL is GPL but my code is not derived for
the DLL so it can use whatever license I want.  In the same way a plugin or
theme is its own codebase, the fact that it integrates into another software
does not change its separateness.In my mind a derivative work would be if I
took the wordpress code and used some of its functions in building my own
php script or if I modify wordpress to create my own separate blogging
system.

Now that's my own personal opinion, yours may differ.  The fact is, its not
so clear cut afaik as to what exactly constitutes a derivative work, now
perhaps licensing isn't so obvious, and some sort of submission policy would
clarify that you can only submit GPL licensed plugins and themes.