Licensing

WordPress is open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL.. When you contribute to it, the terms that apply depend on the project and how you contribute. This page explains what that means and what to check before you contribute.

What a license does

A license is the set of permissions that comes with a piece of work. It tells everyone what they may do with it, such as use it, change it, and share it. The GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. protects these freedoms for everyone, including the people who build on WordPress.

The license WordPress uses

WordPress is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (GPLv2 or later). It gives everyone four freedoms: to run WordPress for any purpose, to study how it works and change it, to share it, and to share the versions they changed.

The WordPress project considers plugins and themes derivative works that inherit the GPL, as the license page explains. Plugins in the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. Directory must be compatible with the GPL.

Your contributions are licensed too

The terms for a contribution depend on the project and how you contribute.

• On TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/.: when you upload a patch, WordPress Trac shows a notice that by contributing code you grant its use under the GPLv2 (or later), and the upload button reads “Agree and Upload”.
• On GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/: GitHub’s Terms of Service say that when you add content to a repository with a license notice, you license that content under the same terms, unless a separate agreement, such as a contributor license agreement, says otherwise.

On GitHub, this covers more than code: documentation, images, and other content you add to a repository are licensed under its terms too.

Some projects use a different license

Not every WordPress project uses the GPL alone. For example:

• Photos for the WordPress Photo Directory are submitted under the CC0 license, so anyone can use them for any purpose without permission, attribution, or payment.
• The Openverse codebase is released under the MIT license.
• Code contributed to Gutenberg since April 15, 2021 is released under both the GPLv2 (or later) and the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

Before you contribute

• Check the license. Look for a LICENSE file in the repository, or the license note in the project’s documentation.
• Only share what you have the right to share. GitHub’s terms ask you to confirm that you have the right to license what you add. Do not copy code, text, or images from somewhere else unless their license allows it.
• Ask when you are not sure. The team you are contributing with can help, in their SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ channel or on the issue you are working on.