Elementor is Anti-Software Freedom / Anti-GPL? Say it isn’t so…

  • This issue was brought up before by another, lip service was given and then dropped hoping everyone would forget about it…

    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/pro-version-not-gpl2/

    With the new version of Elementor coming out soon, many months later the question still is…

    Why isn’t Elementor Pro licensed GPL?

    Take a look at their current terms…

    Scroll down to #3 – Licenses

    https://elementor.com/terms/

    Having read that now, don’t that sound like the opposite of what the spirit of the GPL and the WordPress community have been built on? Whatever changes they made to them if any clearly weren’t enough. Time to just scrap them all and just adopt the GPL already for both the free and the Pro.

    So, I am hoping the Elementor team can finally shed some light on why this hasn’t been properly addressed earlier. At the very least it’s disingenuously presented. Many will simply assume because one is licensed one way that the other is too. You can’t know what license you’re getting until you’ve bought a license and are able to check the PRO download.

    If the morally challenged people at Facebook can decide to switch their React license then sure Elementor being much better could actually license Pro as GPL just like the competitor Beaver Builder or so many other major plugins out there. It’s just seems the right thing to do and I’ve to hear a good argument for allowing such a restrictive precedent.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • They are not going to answer.
    I am still waiting to a reply. They never came back to me or answer any of my questions.

    ??

    The free version is GPLv3+, per https://plugins.trac.www.ads-software.com/browser/elementor/trunk/license.txt and https://plugins.trac.www.ads-software.com/browser/elementor/trunk/elementor.php

    I don’t know about the paid version.

    Thread Starter electronicpakrat

    (@electronicpakrat)

    I am not talking about the FREE version. I’m only referring to the PAID Pro version.

    My original post contains the GPL unfriendly license terms from the PAID version which no one needs to actually buy before they can determine the license type. It’s out in the open for many to see but few care initially if at all. When they finally do realize it later and decide that they care it’s often too late. They’ll either just have to accept the terms at that point or rebuild their site with a GPL compliant tool.

    I figured the WordPress forums were to discuss the version hosted on WordPress, but I see now your initial message mentioned their paid version.

    Do you have a copy of their paid version? Is it an add-on to the free version or a fully separate plugin? Either way, look at the license file and plugin file’s header comments to see what those say. Do they say GPL like the free version does?

    Thread Starter electronicpakrat

    (@electronicpakrat)

    Yes, I do have the paid version. It is an add-on rather than fully standalone plugin.

    The paid Pro version plugin folder doesn’t contain a license.txt, doesn’t mention the GPL and the license URL links here: https://elementor.com/terms/ instead of to the GNU.org site as is more common.

    WP.org repository said they can do whatever they want on their own site since repo version is GPL licensed. While I don’t disagree with that, I posted this since I felt this difference between the free and paid was worth highlighting to those that perhaps see it before upgrading and maybe think twice about it.

    Sounds like they don’t have adequate legal understanding or counsel on the issue.

    • Per GPL, all plugins/themes are (or are substantially) derivatives of WP core (since all assets are not necessarily derivatives)
    • All plugins hosted here must be fully GPL-compatible (including all assets, such as JS and images)
    • Elementor Pro extends/enhances (i.e. is a derivative of) Elementor core, which is GPLv3+
    • Therefore Elementor Pro is GPLv3+ (as the GPL is a viral license)

    (Disclaimer: I’m not an attorney.)

    I’d personally guess this just isn’t high-priority for them, and, therefore, they never got around to giving it a thorough review like they indicated in the other thread on this topic.

    This thread will likely get locked down soon (anything Pro related) so I’d suggest reaching out to the dev team via:

    – Website – (https://my.elementor.com/contact/)
    – Github (https://github.com/pojome/elementor/issues)
    – the unofficial Elementor Community Facebook group _ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/Elementors/)

    * even if you have already reached out using these methods, it gives everyone else a few places to go should they stumble across this thread

    Reading between the lines there appears to be a possible lack of understanding of the GPL licence or maybe even the spirit of open source with a statement like this:

    Open source is also a win for us, because we benefit from the larger audience and lower marketing costs.

    https://docs.elementor.com/article/44-why-is-elementor-free

    Hey everyone,
    I am happy to state that Elementor is now fully GPL, both free and pro versions.

    Elementor is an open source product. Elementor Core has always been GPL, and releasing the pro version as GPL required us to properly research the issue. After doing our due diligence we found the right way for us to be fully GPL while protecting our interests as a company and brand.

    Thread Starter electronicpakrat

    (@electronicpakrat)

    This is excellent news! Thanks for your efforts. Surely the details of this change will be written up in a blog post on the official site?

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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