I'm not sure whether the store featured here sold 100% GPL license products so the following is a only a general comment.

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Feeling that people stole your product is valid. You brought an idea to life, didn't give it away for free, but somehow it ends up free for downloads anyway. It makes sense. However, you forget. Before distributing your products, you had to agree to GPL freedoms.

I made the same mistake earlier in my career. From a designer's perspective, I felt people were "stealing" my ideas and products. In reality, they weren't. By releasing my ideas under GPL, I voluntarily gave the ok.

Many people in the WordPress business jump in head first because it's popular and bankable, without consciously deciding to support the GPL license. We all have to ask ourselves. Am I supporting open source & making money OR am I just trying to make money? If the latter then it's simple. Don't be in the GPL business.

I read the Tavern now and again, but rarely comment (maybe once a year, if that) because of the drama. This time, I feel like I have to say something to change people's attitudes because after ten years in the WordPress business, I still have friends who send me GPL products to play with, but some reason they feel the need to remind me, "You didn't get this script from me. OK?"

That fear of public disapproval is totally unnecessary and I believe it stifles innovation. For a specific example, the theme business operates under this layer of supposed "originality". Nobody wants to step on each other's toes, even if the original product was free and 100% GPL (including CSS parts).

That's B.S. Stop trying to reinvent the wheels to preserve someone else's "originality". You're wasting people's time AND your own. Take the original code, improve it, then push it back out to the world. Someone else will do the same to your improvements. That's how we all get to the next level simultaneously instead of one person at a time.

If you run a WordPress/GPL business with the attitude of ignoring "thieves" then you're in the wrong business.