Can't Sell Plugins?

  • holliday22

    (@holliday22)


    14 years ago

    Hey Everyone,

    I was thinking of writing a niche plugin and selling it. I mentioned that to a friend and he said that there was some controversy over whether that was legal.

    After about 30 minutes of google searches, I couldn’t come up with anything to support that.

    Can anyone help me by pointing me to any relevant info?

    Thanks!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Micah Cooksey

    (@micahcooksey)

    There are a number of commercial WP plugins, and that’s perfectly fine. There’s not anything in the WP license agreement against selling plugins. However, you must license your plugin under the GPL, as that is the license WP is released under. This means that your plugin, like WordPress, would be free to be modified and freely distributed. So, someone could buy your plugin, tweak it (or not) and redistribute it for free.

    Thread Starter holliday22

    (@holliday22)

    Why would you have to license a plugin in the same way that WP is licensed?

    It seems as if most commercial plugin creators are not doing things this way. Are there consequences for them? This seems like a gray area.

    Micah Cooksey

    (@micahcooksey)

    Because a plugin is an extension of WordPress, and builds upon its functions.

    You can charge for your plugin, you just have to release it under the GPL. This issue has been discussed quite a bit on the forums. Just do a search for “GPL Plugins” and you’ll see what I mean.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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