GPL-Compatible Images

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RE: 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.-Compatibility

Hey guys,

I was thinking to write a post about it, but I chose the list instead.

As I was going over some license *issues* with my very own work, it turns
out that sites like http://unsplash.com/ are completely unreliable and
probably not the best choice to use images from.

The site itself does not have an explicit license, other than a line where
it says “All photos CC0”, which is definitely not enough.

Should we “police” this? You bet!

All right, so I took few extra steps and came to conclusion that the
original license and the license http://unsplash.com/ advertise are
different.

In most cases the license are either not CC0, or they require a special
permission by the owner and in some other cases released under CC and we
all know that CC alone is not GPL-Compatible. Not to mention that sites
lists images from people that don’t even exist.

When that special permission is granted the source needs to have that in
writing, otherwise “All photos CC0” means nothing to us.

Best example:

http://500px.com/photo/69737425/hoi-an-vietnam-by-rafael-chiti?from=user

Thanks,
Emil


#gpl

Licensing Note: Apache and GPL

Just a quick note, that came up during last week’s push to tame the review queue: the ApacheApache Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is an Open Source software available for free. 2.0 license is 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.-compatible, but only with version 3.0 of the GPL. Works that are either GPLv2.0 or GPLv3.0 are appropriate to be hosted in the Theme directory, so that’s not a problem; however, works that incorporate or bundle Apache 2.0 works must use either unversioned GPL, or GPLv3.0 explicitly.

The most likely occurrence of this issue is with Themes developed using Twitter Bootstrap. When reviewing such Themes, please be sure to check that, if the Theme is licensed under GPL, that the license specifies either unversioned GPL, or GPLv3.0.

(And if for any reason this interpretation is incorrect, please discuss in the comments.)

Edit

Note, by “unversioned” GPL, I am referring to the current version of the GNU GPL, which can be found at this URL, and which currently is GPLv3.

What is important is the actual license text associated with the Theme: whether called simply “GPL” or explicitly GPLv3, the license text must be GPLv3. A Theme that claims the license is “GPL”, but that ships with a license.txt that is GPLv2 would not be able to bundle an Apache 2.0-licensed work.

#apache-2-0, #gpl, #license