7 ms·

How does GPL3 answer under which organization that Wordpress lives and in which it is maintained? Edit: the Wordpress GitHub also states GPL2

the-dude 5y ago
I can take the Wordpress source and start a company where my copy lives and is maintained. Do I own it now?
- tyingq 5y ago
  The copyright owner would always have more rights than someone using a GPL licensed copy of the source. Automattic itself doesn't have to abide by GPL terms for whatever use they want to make of Wordpress, WooCommerce, etc. Edit: Seems there's no contributor licensing agreement for Wordpress, so complicated here. Though the general point of copyright holders having specific rights beyond licenses they release under is still relevant, IMO.
  - mirashii 5y ago
    > Automattic itself doesn't have to abide by GPL terms for whatever use they want to make of Wordpress Yes they do. Automatic doesn’t own the copyright to all the code. Individual contributions are still copyrighted and licensed under the GPL. They would need permission from all previous contributors to relicense it to avoid having to comply with the GPL.
    - tyingq 5y ago
      Sure, barring contributions made without contributor agreements in place. They seem to track "copyright holders" for wordpress core and it's not a huge list: https://codex.wordpress.org/Copyright_Holders https://codex.wordpress.org/Copyright_Holders
      - rmccue 5y ago
        This list is super out-of-date and in no way canonical; you’d need to check svn to see the real list of contributors. (The Codex is, to some degree, abandoned given the existence of the new developer documentation.) e.g: I’ve been a contributor to WordPress for about 17 years, I personally own the copyright to a huge chunk of WordPress’ source, and I am not on that list. :)
        mirashii 5y ago
        I was going to point out a similar thing. I was a contributor for a few years in the mid-2000s
  - rmccue 5y ago
    WordPress doesn’t have a CLA, so contributors retain rights to their contributions. Automattic is a major contributor to WordPress, and has an agreement with the Foundation to use the trademark, but otherwise has no special permissions†. Also, the Foundation owns the trademark, domains, and is the legal entity for events, but also does not own the copyright on the source code. († nb: some asterisks that only matter to WP insiders) (I’m a long-term contributor to WordPress.)
- yepthatsreality 5y ago
  No, Wordpress Foundation does. Wordpress might be very openly developed but that does negate legal ownership and responsibility.
  - rmccue 5y ago
    The WordPress Foundation owns the trademark, but not the copyright associated with the code, which remains the IP of the contributors (see my answer above).
    - yepthatsreality 5y ago
      Which would make Automattic the majority owner no? Or has there been enough significant changes that has diluted the majority ownership? I remember a push to integrate with JS technologies several years back where I could see that happening.
      - rmccue 5y ago
        Automattic is the largest contributor by far, yes, but a majority doesn’t really matter for things like relicensing which require unanimous consent. “Owner” isn’t really an applicable term here; legally, each contributor (corporate or personal) retains the ownership of their own IP. (The WordPress Foundation is effectively controlled by Matt, and is the entity that actually owns the things that have ownership like trademarks.) In the broader context of control as we’re discussing here, Automattic couldn’t eg unilaterally switch to closed source, or misuse the trademarks, or etc. The ownership of their contributions gives them the ability to veto relicensing (which is something many contributors can do anyway), or to assert their own rights if the GPL is violated (as Wix did, and which any contributor can do). By pure size of their contributions, they can steer the project as well, but that’s not unilateral (and is a nebulous issue across the roles of Automattic vs the Foundation vs Matt). Now we’re getting very insider though.
        yepthatsreality 5y ago
        > Now we’re getting very insider though. This is exactly where a legal process would start.

the-dude 5y ago

I can take the Wordpress source and start a company where my copy lives and is maintained. Do I own it now?

tyingq 5y ago
The copyright owner would always have more rights than someone using a GPL licensed copy of the source. Automattic itself doesn't have to abide by GPL terms for whatever use they want to make of Wordpress, WooCommerce, etc. Edit: Seems there's no contributor licensing agreement for Wordpress, so complicated here. Though the general point of copyright holders having specific rights beyond licenses they release under is still relevant, IMO.
- mirashii 5y ago
  > Automattic itself doesn't have to abide by GPL terms for whatever use they want to make of Wordpress Yes they do. Automatic doesn’t own the copyright to all the code. Individual contributions are still copyrighted and licensed under the GPL. They would need permission from all previous contributors to relicense it to avoid having to comply with the GPL.
  - tyingq 5y ago
    Sure, barring contributions made without contributor agreements in place. They seem to track "copyright holders" for wordpress core and it's not a huge list: https://codex.wordpress.org/Copyright_Holders https://codex.wordpress.org/Copyright_Holders
    - rmccue 5y ago
      This list is super out-of-date and in no way canonical; you’d need to check svn to see the real list of contributors. (The Codex is, to some degree, abandoned given the existence of the new developer documentation.) e.g: I’ve been a contributor to WordPress for about 17 years, I personally own the copyright to a huge chunk of WordPress’ source, and I am not on that list. :)
      - mirashii 5y ago
        I was going to point out a similar thing. I was a contributor for a few years in the mid-2000s
- rmccue 5y ago
  WordPress doesn’t have a CLA, so contributors retain rights to their contributions. Automattic is a major contributor to WordPress, and has an agreement with the Foundation to use the trademark, but otherwise has no special permissions†. Also, the Foundation owns the trademark, domains, and is the legal entity for events, but also does not own the copyright on the source code. († nb: some asterisks that only matter to WP insiders) (I’m a long-term contributor to WordPress.)
yepthatsreality 5y ago
No, Wordpress Foundation does. Wordpress might be very openly developed but that does negate legal ownership and responsibility.
- rmccue 5y ago
  The WordPress Foundation owns the trademark, but not the copyright associated with the code, which remains the IP of the contributors (see my answer above).
  - yepthatsreality 5y ago
    Which would make Automattic the majority owner no? Or has there been enough significant changes that has diluted the majority ownership? I remember a push to integrate with JS technologies several years back where I could see that happening.
    - rmccue 5y ago
      Automattic is the largest contributor by far, yes, but a majority doesn’t really matter for things like relicensing which require unanimous consent. “Owner” isn’t really an applicable term here; legally, each contributor (corporate or personal) retains the ownership of their own IP. (The WordPress Foundation is effectively controlled by Matt, and is the entity that actually owns the things that have ownership like trademarks.) In the broader context of control as we’re discussing here, Automattic couldn’t eg unilaterally switch to closed source, or misuse the trademarks, or etc. The ownership of their contributions gives them the ability to veto relicensing (which is something many contributors can do anyway), or to assert their own rights if the GPL is violated (as Wix did, and which any contributor can do). By pure size of their contributions, they can steer the project as well, but that’s not unilateral (and is a nebulous issue across the roles of Automattic vs the Foundation vs Matt). Now we’re getting very insider though.
      - yepthatsreality 5y ago
        > Now we’re getting very insider though. This is exactly where a legal process would start.