torsteinoI got into an argument about an (hopefully) hypotetical situation on a norwegian webmaster-forum. One guy wondered/worried that the rights to wordpress (as in the rights to code/platform) could be sold to a company that would demand an (annual or one-time) fee for licences, also for existing installations, and another claims this is totally possible/legal.
As I understand the GPL, that would not really be possible/legal, since all existing code already is released as gratis/free of charge and free to use/modify under the GPL, meaning that any new code based on the already GPL-licenced code would also have to be GPL-licenced.
So as I understand it - at the very least that means a free fork could be made/maintained by anyone who wished to do so, and they could even freely include any code "the new (evil) owner" made, since any user of that code could freely distribute it.
Am I right? And would "the new (evil) owner" have to release publically any modifications to the existing code, or could they keep it just for themselves and their paying clients?
