WordPress GPL Sites GPL stands for General Public License. This license is the most commonly used free software license used by open-source software. This license was written by Richard Stallman for the free software foundation for the GNU project. It is important that we understand the GPL license in order to utilize WordPress properly. As the GPL affects both end-users and the WordPress developers.
The GPL was made so that it could facilitate the growth of proprietary software. This license is a free software license. Here the free software or open software means that the source code is available to all and users have complete freedom to utilize, modify and distribute the modified software to others.
The GPL license – WordPress GPL Sites themes and plugins
If you are using WordPress it is essential that you have an understanding of the GPL license as WordPress is also released under this. The GPL license can be understood a bit by reading these points:
Anybody has the freedom to open the source code of the application.
The freedom to access the source code and then change it according to a specific need.
Freedom to distribute the application to others without making changes or without it.
You can make the improved (specified changes) application to the general public so others can benefit.
This means that it is best for the users but doesn’t give many benefits to the developer. Developers are not benefited because their code is provided to all and they can make any changes that they want. The developers’ hard work is available to all.
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems in today’s world because of GPL only as thousands of people have given their input and benefitted many other users. It wasn’t possible to create such an amazing platform without the participation of thousands of experts. And this has been possible only because WordPress is free open-source software.
The main issue which comes with WordPress being free software is that the hard work code of the programmers and developers is available to all and can be distributed to anyone. This means that the PHP code inside the plugins and themes is also licensed under the GPL. WordPress GPL Sites is becoming so famous
This means that the premium plugins and themes are also available to all and these can be copied by other people and can be distributed to the public by their name. And that is an extremely unfair practice.
Is it safe to use WordPress GPL themes and plugins?
Have you ever seen movies that are copied from other movies and are shown to the users just by doing simple changes? Well, they can be sued if the original movie has copyright. This doesn’t help with movies, only the same thing can be done with WordPress themes and plugins.
Various programmers and developers put their hard work into work ok and create premium themes and plugins for WordPress. But we all know that WordPress comes under GPL license which means that the source code will be available to all even of those premium themes and plugins of WordPress.
So because of this, some people can take unfair advantage of that. These people copy the source code of the plugins and themes of WordPress and then make them into their own and sell them at cheap prices as their own products. So some users consider it not to be a safe option to use BEST WordPress GPL themes and plugins There are certain methods by which you can protect your work even under GPL.
What can be the issue?
The license which is used to protect your code in WordPress is GPL(general public license). GPL is part of the basic foundation for the WordPress community.
WordPress is a knowledge-sharing platform with easily accessible learning for each and everybody. Some people exploit all this for their own benefit. Everybody can easily protect their content even though it is distributed under GPL.
To protect first we need to know what the issues are. Number one is people who copy the code and sell it as their own. And as they copy it only they charge less price for it and sell it.
Most of the new customers choose to go for the cheaper plugin and themes. And because of this, the money that the developer should get is received by someone who just redistributed the product.
Redistribution of the product can cause harm to the actual product code. Which is extremely harmful to the reputation of the original owner. This mostly happens when others try to modify the product and make changes in the source code. These people don’t care about the actual code or the reputation of the original developer; all they care about is making more money. So sometimes they can also enter such codes which will give them more money but will risk end users’ security.
The developers of the GPL plugins and GPL themes on WordPress reputation get destroyed when trolls are not able to provide proper assistance or provide updates or don’t give security. Nobody blames the trolls but the original company. And blame them for their bad experience.
Protect your plugins and themes
Because of the GPL everyone(the trolls) has the legal right to use, modify and redistribute the code to everyone. The only way you can protect yourself is to choose to use the plugins and themes created by professionals. And we have good news for developers too.
That is the GPL doesn’t apply to everything. This means that your company name, product name, logo, and trademark are completely safe. Nobody can copy them and if someone does you can always take action against it.
As it violates intellectual property rights and when someone does that you can take legal action against them. WordPress developers for themes and plugins can have copyright protection. This will protect things like Graphics, Promotional Materials, packaging, etc.
In the end:
It is very important that you choose the right plugin and themes on WordPress for your website. As both of the versions are available the original one was created by the developers and the one which is copied by others and redistributed.
So yes we can say that it is safe to use WordPress GPL themes and plugins but you always need to be careful. Srmehranclub.com is one of the places where you can download plugins and themes. Hope you found this useful.
Keep reading, keep growing.