WordPress.org bans Themeforest members from participating in official WordCamp gatherings

brainbuzzmedia said
So… Let me get this straight. Because WooThemes is 100% GPL compliant, I could buy a membership for access to all their themes and then start my own website called WhewThemes and resell all their themes for half price? Can anyone give me a clear yes or not on this, because I have a plan..

Yes you can: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLRequireAvailabilityToPublic

Funny though is that if you purchase a theme from wordpress.com, you won’t get a source code, so you cannot reuse the theme again even though it’s GPL theme from WooCommerce. That’s how is Wordpress.com protecting their authors and making money.

I personally didn’t get the whole thing, Wordpress community is trying to enforce something that other people don’t want.

For example we wanted to release a theme on wordpress.org 100% GPL for free. We’re not allowed to do that simply because we sell themes on Themeforest and therefore we’re supporting non-gpl themes! That’s just crazy

How does allowing sleezy people to resell someone else’s work and at the same time steal their income fit the spirit of the GPL? And if it does, why do we care about the spirit of the GPL?

brainbuzzmedia said
How does allowing sleezy people to resell someone else’s work and at the same time steal their income fit the spirit of the GPL? And if it does, why do we care about the spirit of the GPL?

Well the spirit of GPL is a nice thing if you’re developing some hobby project and have income from something else, but the spirit won’t pay your bills.

I have nothing against GPL, lot of nice stuff wouldn’t be there with it. But the freedom is also to be able to choose the license and split license here is what will help to protect author’s income.

brainbuzzmedia said
How does allowing sleezy people to resell someone else’s work and at the same time steal their income fit the spirit of the GPL? And if it does, why do we care about the spirit of the GPL?

It is basically like politics, but I don’t want to go that way for the sake of the thread…

Yeah, I guess what i’m asking is “what good would come of it?” if themeforest was 100% GPL? How would that help: the community, theme authors?

kriskorn said

brainbuzzmedia said
How does allowing sleezy people to resell someone else’s work and at the same time steal their income fit the spirit of the GPL? And if it does, why do we care about the spirit of the GPL?

It is basically like politics, but I don’t want to go that way for the sake of the thread…

Sounds like a gigantic power trip.

brainbuzzmedia said
Oh wait, it is a thing.

[link removed]

“How can I legally offer this?

Simple. It’s kind of WooThemes’ dirty little secret. They have released everything they publish under the GPL (General Public License). This is the same license WordPress itself is given away free under. GPL gives the buyer full rights to use, edit and redistribute the product as they see fit. This means I can bundle all these themes up so you can make a huge saving.”

I’m speechless

All I can say [edit by mod. No swearing, please.] GPL…

brainbuzzmedia said
Oh wait, it is a thing.

[link removed]

Yeah, that’s an excellent and responsible business decision Collis, why won’t you let X% of Themeforest’s authors all end up in a $15 bundle sold on a external website that has contributed absolutely nothing to someone else’s work? Because after all, it’s in the spirit of the GPL.

Don’t know what to say. Is this legal? Hundreds of theme makers out there, WP just now reacts on the biggest – ThemeForest.

It appears to be legal. You can search for multiple sites selling bundles for all the big name GPL wordpress shops like woothemes, studiopress, etc.

gbs said
Don’t know what to say. Is this legal?

According to the GPL, as per the link @Ait posted above ( http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLRequireAvailabilityToPublic ), it is legal, yes.

This is precisely one of the things the split license protects our authors from.