Peter Westwood 9:22 pm on February 11, 2010

Summary of Feb 11th 2010 Dev Chat

First of all Jane gave us a quick update on the progress of the menu management and the news that we will be integrating the Woo Menus

Next we had a discussion about the best way for plugins to be explicit about the licence they are released under. The general conclusion was to recommend that people are explicit and follow the recommendations in the codex (https://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin#Standard_Plugin_Information) which will be updated to include a specific plugin header for a licence slug. For old plugins the assumption is if they are in Extend and have no explicit licence then they are GPL2.

Then we had a quick discussion about progress against the schedule and it is looking like we will not have all features in before the Feb 15th date and so this will likely slip a little which we get the menu management code in.

Finally we had a quick update on the improvements that will be happen to WordPress Extend to make it a better community collaboration environment.

Chip Bennett 9:38 pm on February 11, 2010

Regarding change to 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 repository guidelines:

5.If you don’t specify a v2-compatible license, what you check in is explicitly GPLv2.

Should read:

5.If you don’t specify a v2-compatible license, what you check in is implicitly GPLv2.

EXPLICIT means that it is defined in the plugin.
IMPLICIT means that it is assumed from the repository guidelines
- Peter Westwood 10:30 pm on February 11, 2010
  
  Personally I would feel that the explicit action is you checking the code in.
  
  i.e. By doing the check-in you are explicitly saying the code is GPL2
  - Chip Bennett 10:55 pm on February 11, 2010
    
    But that’s not what the word explicit means.
    
    Legally speaking, since the 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 author owns the copyright, you cannot explicitly state the license of his plugin for him; only the author can do so.
    
    You can, however, claim that a plugin that is uploaded to the repository without an explicit license declaration assumes GPLv2 implicitly.
    
    (And, I think that’s a good solution, btw – semantic issues with use of explicitly aside.)
  - Mark Jaquith 11:12 pm on February 11, 2010
    
    We are explicitly saying that your license is implicitly GPLv2 when it is not explicitly otherwise.
  - Chip Bennett 11:28 pm on February 11, 2010
    
    But that’s just it: you can’t do that. Only the copyright holder can explicitly state the license for a 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.
    
    Words mean things. 🙂
    
    (I’m not trying to split hairs. I can forsee some plugin authors in the future complaining about the repository not respecting their copyright, by claiming an explicit license that the author hasn’t.)
- Chip Bennett 6:33 pm on February 12, 2010
  
  May I propose the following wording for Guideline #5:
  
  If your 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 does not explicitly state the license under which it is released, by uploading your plugin to this repository you grant 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/ the non-exclusive right to convey your plugin under the GPLv2.
  - Chip Bennett 6:42 pm on February 12, 2010
    
    Or perhaps the following:
    
    If your 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 does not explicitly state the license under which it is released, by uploading your plugin to this repository you imply that you are licensing your plugin under the GPLv2.
vanderzanden1 11:40 pm on February 11, 2010

According to legal advice I’ve received, you can’t assume something is released under a certain license unless it is explicitly stated by the author. So legally speaking I’d have thought that assuming all plugins in the repository are GPLv2 is grossly incorrect. They may be required to be GPLv2, but that’s a totally different kettle of fish from them actually BEING GPLv2.
- miqrogroove 11:52 pm on February 11, 2010
  
  I agree with Chip and vanderzanden1 both. It sounds like magical licensing of someone else’s copyright. If the author didn’t specify a license then the work is not licensed.
  - Robert 5:24 am on February 12, 2010
    
    True. Assumptions about the 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 authors past intentions won’t help with the licensing issue at all, both what’s left besides this pragmatic solution? Purging the whole plugin repo?
- Ryan 9:32 am on February 12, 2010
  
  Woops! That was actually me who commented under the name vanderzanden1. A friend logged into their WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ account on my computer and mustn’t have logged out.
  
  This license situation worries me a little as it could get really messy if someone decided to take legal action against 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/ for releasing their code as GPLv2 when they had not intended to release it as GPLGPL GNU General Public License. Also see copyright license. at all. This may not be likely, but I’d hate to see something like that happen.
  
  The legal advice I received may be incorrect for all I know, but it seems fairly sound to me. I assume you can’t just go retrospectively changing other people’s software licenses without their permission regardless of whether they are or aren’t required to be using a particular license.
- Ryan 1:25 am on February 13, 2010
  
  Sorry, it appears I jumped the gun a little. Most of what I said above is incorrect.
  
  More information is available here:
  http://www.wptavern.com/forum/plugins-hacks/1306-right-idea-wrong-implementation-9.html#post12611
  - miqrogroove 1:19 am on February 14, 2010
    
    It’s a matter of how you frame the issue. I have a 2000-line 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 that contains a copyright notice, is not publicly available, and has no license attached to it. If someone were to leak that code and upload it to the repository as is, you can bet 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/ risks liability for claiming GPLGPL GNU General Public License. Also see copyright license. on that copyright. Semantics can be debated forever, but the code is not licensed.

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Summary of Feb 11th 2010 Dev Chat

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