CForms II removed from Repository.

[hallsofmontezuma]

If you check out wordpress.org/extend/plugins, you'll notice that one popular plugin is missing.
According to deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin, the home of CForms, they've removed the plugin for licensing reasons.

The plugin's creator, Oliver, doesn't want his plugin to be GPL-compatible, a requirement of officially hosted WordPress plugins (and technically a requirement of all plugins to GNU-GPL software). According to his website, development has likely ended.

On the one hand, the repository is now rid of a non-GPL compatible plugin, which is mandated by Matt Mullenweg, as it should be. On the other hand, this is an extremely popular plugin, and is very powerful, so the community may be at a loss.

There are several other contact form plugins, and of course you can just right your own. However, this was by far, the easiest for non-technical users to operate, and the most flexible.

What do you think? Should someone take over the development or create a fork so that the community still has this plugin available and further development/support will happen?

[williamsba]

I say fork it. If developers start to pull their plugins because they think they don't have to abide by the GPL then they are wrong. Someone should take over the project and keep it open and free!

[hallsofmontezuma]

Technically, any software that is a plugin/add-on of GNU-GPL software and is dependent on the parent software (WordPress) inherits the GNU-GPL license. For some reason people like to debate me on this, but it's stated very clearly in the license.
Basically, if you make a WordPress plugin, IT IS GPL, you have no say in the matter. The license clearly states that but using/developing for the parent software, you're accepting its GPL license, which requires your add-on/plugin to inherit it's license.
So he was in the wrong from the beginning, by erroneously claiming his plugin to be non-GPL.

[williamsba]

Exactly and I think most plugin/theme developers know this but think they can get around it. At the end of the day anything that relies on WordPress to function is GPL.

[conorp]

I personally have never used this plugin but couldn't people use another similar plugin? They all do the same thing in the end.

[hallsofmontezuma]

@williamsba What I'm saying is that you can claim your plugin is non-GPL all you want, but it is. The developer has no say in the matter. According to the license, when you use a GPL software (like WordPress), or develop a plugin/addon for it, you are accepting its license, which states that the plugin/addon you're developing for it inherits that license.

@conorp Oh it's a great plugin. The next best thing is Contact 7, which doesn't even come close. Download a copy of CForms and play around with it and you'll see what I mean.

[hallsofmontezuma]

Just for reference, here's a quote from gnu.org:

If a program released under the GPL uses plug-ins, what are the requirements for the licenses of a plug-in?
It depends on how the program invokes its plug-ins. If the program uses fork and exec to invoke plug-ins, then the plug-ins are separate programs, so the license for the main program makes no requirements for them.
If the program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single program, which must be treated as an extension of both the main program and the plug-ins. This means the plug-ins must be released under the GPL or a GPL-compatible free software license, and that the terms of the GPL must be followed when those plug-ins are distributed.
If the program dynamically links plug-ins, but the communication between them is limited to invoking the ‘main’ function of the plug-in with some options and waiting for it to return, that is a borderline case.

[williamsba]

I'm agreeing with you I'm just saying I think most developers/designers know this as well but they still try to push that they are "non" GPL, even though that's not possible.

[hallsofmontezuma]

Well sure. They can claim it all they want. It's still not the case, and if it is, they're in violation of the license they inherently agree to by using WordPress.

For some reason there is a huge misconception out there about many aspects of the licensing. Some people think that he's allowed to have it under any license he wants: not true. Some people think that if it's open source, he's not allowed to include a link in the generated form: not true.
Just like WordPress has many, many links back to their site, so can CForms, or any other open source software. And just like you can remove any or all links back to WordPress, you can do the same for CForms. Oliver didn't like people removing the links back to him, so he decided to claim it wasn't open source. When people had a problem with that, he nixed the plugin altogether.

[itsananderson]

I think people feel insecure about releasing projects under GPL, as if they're somehow giving up all rights to their software. If they read the agreement carefully they'll realize that they really aren't.

Looks like the problem the cforms II author has with GPL is that people can repackage his software and make money from it. I could almost understand that if SHE was making money from it, but since she isn't it's really illogical (to me).

Ahh well, Automattic has pretty much stated that they won't go after people who don't release GPL beyond removing them from the plugin repository. This actually makes sense to me. Why waste their time and effort when most of the community will shun the non-GPL guys anyway.