Why the GPL doesn’t matter
WordCamp Kyoto 2009 was a great experience. One presentation by Digital Cube provoked a discussion about GPL amongst a small group of attendees, myself included.
The major worry about releasing themes or plugins as GPL is that after all the work and effort at producing it, someone you sell it to is going to turn around and re-release it either at a discount or for free. Leaving you, the original developer, feeling cheated.
The GPL definitely allows this. But it doesn’t much matter if you understand the concept of competitive advantage. Let me explain:
GPL theme/code + something = what you are selling
That something is called your competitive advantage. If your competitive advantage is not compelling enough, then you are at risk of the above problem. Note: even if you release your code under a restrictive license, if your competitive advantage is not enough, you probably won’t sell much anyway.
Competitive advantage can take many forms, sometimes it is expert or collective knowledge, sometimes it is brand/loyalty and sometimes it is barriers to entry.
Maybe a couple of examples will help.
WordPress is GPL and free. So how does (1) Automattic make money and (2) why is there no competitor that cuckoos the code?
(1) Automattic makes money from various services, including freemium and VIP hosted versions of WordPress and commercial licenses for comment spam protection.
(2) Automattic has all the knowledge of how WordPress ticks, they can take decisions like how to change the API/UI/plugin systems and they have the loyalty of all the WordPress users and developers. In short, their competitive advantage in the world of WordPress is so overwhelming that it isn’t realistic to challenge them, even though the code is GPL.
WordPress GPL Code + (knowledge, developers, good will, experience, control of code roadmap) = What Automattic is selling
Another example is Red Hat with their product, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). RHEL starts at $349 per year.
In this case, there is some organisation that has taken the code and re-released it for free! Does it affect Red Hat? Yes! But in a good way because:
GPL code + (expertise, support, assurance of brand ) = RHEL
GPL code + unguaranteed community powered support = CentOS
Red Hat doesn’t lose many sales, most organisations that have the money will gladly pay for support. This support is more important to businesses, dependent on their servers, than the $349-$2499 per year.
And for individuals or small start-ups, the free CentOS let’s them use a system very similar to RHEL. So it increases the user-base and knowledgeable users. Knowledgeable users like system administrators. If in the future they have to make a purchasing decision, it is more likely that they choose RHEL over say SUSE. The GPL along with CentOS helps them build their potential customer base.
How about you as a theme/plugin developer?
Even individuals who release code/themes as GPL can be successful if they plan out their competitive advantage. If you are good, then you know what your code/theme is doing. You can fix bugs, you can add features, you can customise or tailor it. Your customers can count on you. People who buy it or download it for free from company X? They can’t. So they think twice about doing so. Some will still do, but the greater your competitive advantage the fewer there will be. And Automattic will give you a helping hand at improving your competitive advantage by listing you on their GPL supported themes page.
If you have any questions, or simply disagree with me you’re welcome to share your thoughts in the comments.
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