All WP Themes & Plug-Ins Should Be Free

i was recently reading abou the GPL license which Wordpress is realeased under and to the best of my current knowledge, anything that uses any part of wordpress is automatically under GPL and is free . So basically any theme that you buy or plug-in that uses any part of wordpress can be freely modified, redistubuted etc.

GPL- general public license , gives freedom to software or work released under it in terms of freedom to do what ever you want .

** i believe the themes n plugins come into GPL when they are installed not just the files, so the theme itself would be copyrighted etc, but when installed n used on Wordpress then it falls into GPL


would this mean i can freely use premium themes anyoone else bought for my own commerical purposes ?

Dont take this as legal advise, RESEARCH !!

Not really - themes or plugins should be GPLeded only if they were bundled together with Wordpress and sold as a single software (and some themes or plugins installed by default on some hostings indeed are under GPL). If the addon is sold separately, requirements of GPL don't apply. "Using" Wordpress in irrelevant - only reusing source code or bundling makes the package GPL by definiton.

The theme or lugin by itself can be copyrighted but as soon as its installed on wordpress and starts using wordpress to function ( which is the whoel point ) its then under GPL ....to my understanding

goldencrownz786 said:

The theme or lugin by itself can be copyrighted but as soon as its installed on wordpress and starts using wordpress to function ( which is the whoel point ) its then under GPL ....to my understanding

Click to expand...

Nope. Read my answer above. Software license is applied when releasing, not when installing/using the software. Copyleft licenses impose a duty on licensees to share their modifications to the copylefted work - plugin or theme _does not_ modify original Wordpress code neither it reuses the code. Therefore it can be released under whatever license its author wishes.