Drupal is an open-source content management system known for its flexibility and for its ability to handle complex, content-heavy websites. It powers a good chunk of the larger, more complex websites on the web, but it is not as popular for simpler things like blogs or brochure sites.
Drupal is distributed under the GNU GPL license.
In 2006 the Drupal community of contributors was working on the upcoming Drupal 5.0 release. It was to be a big release and one big part of it was to be the new default theme, Garland. The Garland theme was unique and unlike any default theme we had seen from a CMS before.
The work of the Drupal folks was being done in the open in the repositories of the Drupal Project. Mr. Mullenweg noticed Garland there, thought it was “pretty darn neat” and wanted to add it to WordPress.com as a theme his customers could use. (WordPress.com is a commercial service owned by Automattic, which, in turn, is owned by Mr. Mullenweg.)
WordPress.com sent an email message to Steven Wittens, the creator of the Garland theme, asking for permission to use the theme in WordPress.com.
Steven Wittens replied that the theme was released under the GPL license and, so, only subject to the terms of that license, but, he added, there were “a variety of other factors to consider”, the main one being that the Drupal contributors would “also like to use [Garland] to establish a better Drupal branding”.
Steven Wittens summed up Drupal’s point of view as follows in his reply:
From this point of view, if Wordpress or Wordpress.com were to make the Garland theme available, it would be a direct hit to our goals, especially because it’s going to take us a couple of weeks to get our final Drupal 5.0 release out the door and really get the buzz flowing.
Emphasis in the original.
Source: acko.net - Wordpress.com copies Drupal theme
Steven Wittens “never got a reply or any sort of news about it” until a colleague of his sent him a link to a WordPress.com blog post announcing the availability of the Garland theme on WordPress.com.
My immediate reaction was disappointment. If Wordpress.com serves up Garland before we do, all hope of promoting it as an original Drupal style is pretty much flushed down the drain.
Steven Wittens closes his post with the following words: “Of course, technically, Wordpress.com didn’t do anything wrong. But the fact that they asked first, and then still copied it and released it early feels like a stab in the back for me.”
DISCLAIMER
We wish to note that the title of this article uses poetic license and must not be taken literally. WordPress.com did not steal the Garland theme. They just copied it. As far as licensing and the law go, what they did was fine.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Garland screenshot for this article was taken from Gábor Hojtsy’ website: Gábor Hojtsy on Drupal
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.