Reason for GPL v2.0 license usage in newer Themes and Plugins?

  • Hi, y’all,

    I have a question about the “GNU General Public License v2 or later” used in my downloaded themes and plugins. They are, for example, from 2015, rather new then. At that time, both version 3 and Creative Commons licenses (probably more popular today) existed. Is there a particular reason why the GNU General Public License (“v2 or later”) continues to be used in WordPress themes and plugins, which then might also apply to me?

    I intend to use CSS style sheets from these themes and plugins in a little freely licensed self-written script. I thought I’d release it under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Does this fulfill the requirements of the incorporated parts under “GPL v2 or later”, or would I have to leave those GPL licenses intact within my software distribution (or maybe even use a GPL license rather than a CC license myself)?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    www.ads-software.com Admin

    No, the “Noncommercial” clause makes the license incompatible with the GPL, any version. You cannot use the CC NC clause with GPL code and release them together.

    Moderator Yui

    (@fierevere)

    永子

    This article may have answer to your questions:
    https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-compatibility.en.html

    Because PHP interpreter executes ALL scripts as one chunk of OPCode, all scripts should be same license – same as WordPress core.
    Assets can use another license.

    more reading about GPL FAQ: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html

    As above ??

    I just want to add that Creative Commons licenses are generally more meant for content (including images, etc.)
    The GPL licenses are generally considered to be more suitable for code.

    Thread Starter cssjutta

    (@cssjutta)

    O.K., thank you for the quick answers (and the very good links, i’m reading)! I use what license then, version 3 or still version 2?

    • This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by cssjutta.

    I think your question is about V3 and V2 compatibility?

    If is say V2 or later you are OK to use V3

    If it says only V2 then only V2

    From https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#v2v3Compatibility

    Is GPLv3 compatible with GPLv2? (#v2v3Compatibility)
    No. Many requirements have changed from GPLv2 to GPLv3, which means that the precise requirement of GPLv2 is not present in GPLv3, and vice versa. For instance, the Termination conditions of GPLv3 are considerably more permissive than those of GPLv2, and thus different from the Termination conditions of GPLv2.

    Due to these differences, the two licenses are not compatible: if you tried to combine code released under GPLv2 with code under GPLv3, you would violate section 6 of GPLv2.

    However, if code is released under GPL “version 2 or later,” that is compatible with GPLv3 because GPLv3 is one of the options it permits.

    Thread Starter cssjutta

    (@cssjutta)

    Good, thank you!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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