Author Archives: Jamie

This issue of theme theft, re-selling (or conflicting business models and the GPL) comes up every couple months. This obviously sucks, but based on the current WordPress code structure and theme distribution model, there isn't a lot which can be done - it is the nature of the beneficial beast that is working with open source licensing models. It caused me to think outside the box and ponder a different approach to resolve the problem at hand. In the 2 years since I originally wrote that article, the premium theme industry developed around a number of thriving businesses. Today, most of the theme developers who sell their wares do so entirely under the GPL. The symptoms causing the questions to be raised may have changed, but the important ones still remain: 1. Can (or will) developers distribute their work under multiple licenses which would respect the source code base license? 2. What do you do if someone does not respect the license that your product is distributed under? 3. How will this on-going conversation affect the open-source community surrounding WordPress?