@Milan Petrovic -

"With GPL you can’t really stop redistribution and you depend on the users honesty not to pass on what they payed for."

This is what troubles me about GPL on themes. Either its open, and anyone can do anything with it including redistributing it as they see fit, for free or for sale, or its not GPL.

If you make it GPL and then are hoping someone doesn't go and sell it on to someone else, then really you may have licensed it GPL but you don't really want it to be GPL. Perhaps because you felt it was expected or required, but not because you believe in GPL or wanted to be GPL.

Don't misunderstand me, I am not singling you out or saying its wrong to go GPL or that there is anything wrong with GPL. I am just questioning this current trend in GPL themes and asking, honestly, what would you do if someone started selling your themes themselves (as GPL would legally allow them to do). Would you condemn them (you shouldn't... it's GPL). Would it bother you at all?(why should it, its GPL. That means you gave it away with very few restrictions on what could be done with it)

My point is, I don't think, given a choice, most theme authors selling premium themes would go GPL and most are only doing because they feel forced into it.

Which is kind of against the spirit of GPL really isn't it? GPL is all about freedom, but freedom at the point of the gun isn't really freedom is it?

I am not making a value judgment on GPL, just saying what I see (and maybe I don't see so good?)

Legally speaking if I wanted to start selling copies of wordpress with a preinstalled pack of GPL studiopress and GPL Woo themes, I could do so.

Granted it wouldn't make a lot of business sense to do it. But that's not the point.

If someone wanted to disrupt the theming industry built around wordpress all they would have to do is start giving away all the premium GPL themes on their site.

Ethical or not (and since its within the law for GPL ...) people would line up to download the themes for free.

I am planning to launch a theme company myself soon. I am currently trying to decide what kind of business/liecensing model I would use. I am looking at the idea of GPL and just very concerned about the complete in-defensibility of a business built on GPL.

I have always planned on releasing some of my work as GPL, but I don't see how a sustainable, long term business, can be built on GPL.

Can the proponents of GPL for wordpress themes demonstrate a successful theming business (with figures please) that has long term viability. wordpress or otherwise.

From what I see right now its very much the experimental 'lets see what happens if we do this' kind of phase for this as a business model and I am not really keen on building a business I will use to feed my family on an experimental business model.

I would really like to know someone has walked the path before and made real $$ sustainably. Woo themes at less than 3 years old proves short term viability but long term has yet to be proven.

Nor have we had a test on the above mentioned weakness of GPL.

I would prefer to go GPL with my themes as it suits me philosophically, but I also have this nagging need to pay the bills. I need to be certain I can do both before I can commit to GPL.