seville76,
It is a shame that your plugin was removed without any notice or a “how are you doing?”. But if you were given the opportunity to make your license GPL compatible, would you have done so?
GPL conversations can be fun. Choosing to release software under the GPL is a very beneficial thing for the end users. It shows that the developer wants to benefit his community more than he or she wants to benefit his or her financial situation with that software.
On the developers part, it is an act of charity. They will almost certainly not make money off of the code but may make a profit from a service related to that code.
This is how companies like RedHat money. The code they distribute and sometimes contribute to is not how they stay in business. It’s the service that they provide by managing the systems that use the RedHat Linux distribution.
Your plugin seems like an excellent idea and implementation, and it’s available in at least two languages. You absolutely should try to make a profit for your efforts and I think no one would here would hope otherwise. The only gotcha is that you must continue to do so not having the plugin hosted by the community service that WordPress.org’s plugin repository offers.
By offering your software as free for private use, you too are being charitable. Much thanks and I hope many people commercial and otherwise use your plugin.
Regarding Akisment… Well it is different.
Your wpseo plugin would have been perfectly fine except for the condition your put into the license. GPL compatible means I can modify it to my heart’s content, which you did not bar exactly. But you did limit what I could do with it under what circumstances.
With the Akismet plugin I can take that code and modify it for use with another anti-spam service. I can take that code and apply it to any system. The code is free and as long as I distribute my derivative work with the source code, keep a copy of the GPL with the distribution, then I am fully compliant with the license.
The Akismet service is another matter. That is not free but it’s not code that is being distributed either. The service is free for private use, commercial does does have to pay. But as far as the GPL goes regarding the distribution of software, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Good luck with your plugin and please do not be discouraged by these events.
