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Chris Pearson's defense is thin at best: Switching to GPL wouldn't affect my business at all! It just rubs me the wrong way! Additionally, he comes across as a

Chris Pearson's defense is thin at best: Switching to GPL wouldn't affect my business at all! It just rubs me the wrong way! Additionally, he comes across as a real jerk. EDIT: After listening to the whole thing I am appalled by Chris Pearson's lack of understanding about licensing and his offensive attitude. Matt Mullenweg deserves an award for being so gracious and patient.

edash 16y ago
It's unfortunate Chris showed himself this way. He came across as a nice guy and impressive business owner in his previous Mixergy interview. He is clearly emotionally invested in this debate and would be better off letting someone else represent his side in the future (PR person, lawyer, parrot etc).
rick888 16y ago
"Chris Pearson's defense is thin at best: Switching to GPL wouldn't affect my business at all! It just rubs me the wrong way!" It will ruin his business. Anyone that buys the thesis theme will be able to share it for free (and he will have no legal recourse). "Additionally, he comes across as a real jerk." so does Richard Stallman. I think he is sick of the GPL zealots hounding him. I would be too. "Matt Mullenweg deserves an award for being so gracious and patient." Matt Mullenweg wants all plugins and themes to be open sourced because he will be able to give them out for free with the WP platform (which will result in more users and more customers for the services that he charges for).
- rick888 16y ago
  open source zealots are in full force tonight
- Otto42 16y ago
  Anybody who buys it now can share it for free. You can get online, right now, and find a copy of thesis and download it without paying a dime. People who are doing this sort of thing aren't going to be stopped by text in a license.
dwwoelfel 16y ago
That's not his defense. His defense is that the GPL is legally unenforceable in his particular case. What you call his defense is really his justification for fighting so hard. And his justification is more than "it just rubs me the wrong way." His sense of ownership is being violated. As for Matt Mullenweg's graciousness, see this comment where he snipes Pearson's work: "We've never incorporated anyone's code without their full participation and there's no code in Thesis I would want anywhere near core anyway. Thesis is a triumph of marketing, not technical competence. (In fact it relies on people not being able to question its incredulous claims about structure and SEO.) The few cool ideas it has were done in other themes first anyway. On a tech level, WooThemes is doing far more interesting work. (And they have been involved in core development.)" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1517073 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1517073

edash 16y ago

It's unfortunate Chris showed himself this way. He came across as a nice guy and impressive business owner in his previous Mixergy interview. He is clearly emotionally invested in this debate and would be better off letting someone else represent his side in the future (PR person, lawyer, parrot etc).

rick888 16y ago

"Chris Pearson's defense is thin at best: Switching to GPL wouldn't affect my business at all! It just rubs me the wrong way!" It will ruin his business. Anyone that buys the thesis theme will be able to share it for free (and he will have no legal recourse). "Additionally, he comes across as a real jerk." so does Richard Stallman. I think he is sick of the GPL zealots hounding him. I would be too. "Matt Mullenweg deserves an award for being so gracious and patient." Matt Mullenweg wants all plugins and themes to be open sourced because he will be able to give them out for free with the WP platform (which will result in more users and more customers for the services that he charges for).

rick888 16y ago
open source zealots are in full force tonight
Otto42 16y ago
Anybody who buys it now can share it for free. You can get online, right now, and find a copy of thesis and download it without paying a dime. People who are doing this sort of thing aren't going to be stopped by text in a license.

dwwoelfel 16y ago

That's not his defense. His defense is that the GPL is legally unenforceable in his particular case. What you call his defense is really his justification for fighting so hard. And his justification is more than "it just rubs me the wrong way." His sense of ownership is being violated. As for Matt Mullenweg's graciousness, see this comment where he snipes Pearson's work: "We've never incorporated anyone's code without their full participation and there's no code in Thesis I would want anywhere near core anyway. Thesis is a triumph of marketing, not technical competence. (In fact it relies on people not being able to question its incredulous claims about structure and SEO.) The few cool ideas it has were done in other themes first anyway. On a tech level, WooThemes is doing far more interesting work. (And they have been involved in core development.)" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1517073 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1517073