MenZa’s Weblog

It has come to my attention, that way too many people open source their applications and code, without even knowing the actual consequences.
Always read a licence before licencing your products under it, or you risk giving away rights you’re not really happy about giving away.
Personally, I try to open source as much of my designs and themes as possible, however I like to stand out, which is why e.g. this theme hasn’t been released yet.

One thing motivated me to write this post.
Recently, a user entered #wordpress and exclaimed that his theme—the default theme for Drupal 5—had been mercilessly copied to wp.com before Drupal 5 had even seen its release.
He was most displeased, and wanted to talk this matter over with Matt Mullenweg, the primary developer of WordPress.
He was mad that his theme had been copied to WordPress, ruining the surprise of the theme on Drupal.
Obviously, he should’ve considered the fact that Drupal is—and has always been—open source, and by developing a theme for it (and releasing it with what I’m assuming is either SVN or a beta), he agrees to let anyone use any content, as long as the user promises to abide by the guidelines specified in the GNU General Public Licence. Obviously, the person who converted this theme to wp.com does this.

Shortly after, a discussion was posted on the WP-Hackers mailing list.

So, what’s your opinion? Were the WP.com developers in their right converting this theme to WordPress?
I’d love to hear your opinion.