Walking in Memphis
Okay, so “riding” more than “walking”. My wife and I accompanied her grandmother and brother to Memphis to tour Graceland and the city as a whole. We hit all the major “touristy” spots: The Peabody Hotel, the old Lorraine Motel (where MLK was assassinated), Sun Records, and of course Graceland and Beale Street.
We even stopped at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. I felt kind of like a jerk, because while we were walking around the grounds taking photographs of the beautiful facility, a small red car stopped at the front door of St. Jude’s…a small child with cancer, wearing an oxygen mask, was assisted out by his/her parents. It really made me wonder why on God’s green earth St. Jude’s is included as a tourist attraction.
I had never been to Memphis, and I’ve lived in the South all my life. I guess I took the city and its rich history for granted. But I did enjoy it, and for the most part it is nice. (We kind of got lost on Saturday and ended up in the not-so-touristy spots of Memphis. We even ran into a funeral procession.)
The next time we go, it won’t be to do the tourist thing. It’ll be to soak up Beale and hit Rendezvous for some delicious BBQ.
I have been following an interesting discussion online for the past several days between the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, and the creator of a premium theme for WordPress, Chris Pearson. The whole gist of the argument is this: Pearson created a theme, called Thesis, and began selling it. In the development, he apparently copied several lines of code from the blogging/content management platform WordPress (which I use on this site).
In doing so, Pearson allegedly violated the terms of the GNU General Public License of WordPress. Now, I’m not a lawyer. I’m relatively new to the whole GPL thing, and quite honestly don’t understand it all yet. But what I do understand is this:
The GPL License gives a developer the right to take a piece of software under the GPL, like WordPress, and tinker with it to suit their needs. It also gives that individual the right to distribute that tinkered software as he/she sees fit, as long as that software remains under the GPL. It also gives that individual the ability to charge for distributing that software.
However, the GPL does not allow an individual to take or copy from software under the GPL and then place it under a proprietary license. This is apparently what Chris Pearson has done with his premium theme Thesis.
Here’s some links for you to peruse regarding this topic:
- The debate between Matt Mullenweg and Chris Pearson on Mixergy is here.
- Mark Jaquith, one of the core developers of WordPress, gives an intelligent and very succinct description of why themes are considered derivative works of WordPress and why they fall under the GPL.
- Andy Skelton, another WordPress contributor, talks about the possibility of a new theme named after the whole brouhaha.
- And then you have the other side, which claims that Matt Mullenweg is Marxist. (Oy vey!!)
On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of meeting Mark, Andy, and Matt in Dallas back in 2008 at WordCamp. These guys are all brilliant, hard-working individuals who have developed a wonderful tool for all of us aspiring bloggers. I see what they have done at Automattic and WordPress as completely within the realm of capitalism; after all, premium theme developers like WooThemes are making money hand over fist and are GPLed.
My advice to Chris? Quit holding out for the sake of holding out and abide by the General Public License, or take the WordPress code out of Thesis. Otherwise you’re just stealing, and that is completely unethical and not good business.
Sunset on the Gulf
I stumbled across this photo on my phone. I took it last summer during a work trip on the Gulf.
George Steinbrenner, 1930-2010
Today the baseball world lost a tremendous man and a true legend. The Yankees will miss you, George, and so will all Yankees fans. My prayers are with your family and may you rest in peace.
George Steinbrenner, 1930-2010
