Hacker News Reader

> WordPress is still GPL licensed.

Only because it's forced to be because it in turn was a fork of a previous GPL license.

It should be noted that Mullenweg has regularly weaponized the GPL license in the past - using it to take out other companies in the ecosystem like in their fight against Thesis.

View on HN

How does one weaponize a gpl license in this context?

You make the CSS and branding into a thing that folks are "discouraged" from distributing. That's most of the WP plugin and theme ecosystem, or was when I retired from it.

Prevent anyone else from profiting off of the ecosystem.

Wordpress might technically be GPL, but the code itself routes most of the key features of Wordpress through Automattic.

If you have a massive technical moat around the ecosystem, it would make sense to be against erecting walls.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com