Working with Joomla, you’ve most likely come across something called GPL (General Public License). Have you ever thought about what it means for you and for the developers of the software?

This blog post will talk briefly about what the GPL is, what it means for you, and why the Morph framework for Joomla is now licensed under the GPL.

What is GPL?

When you think of GPL, what comes to mind?

For many of you it’s the word free, and you’re right…in a way. (No, Brian Teeman, it unfortunately doesn’t mean you get a “free gift with every purchase”).

The GPL license refers to free as “freedom, not price”. Think of it as free speech. Not free beer.

The Foundations of the GPL

The license document describing the ins and outs of the GPL is a looong one. It contains all the terms and conditions for copying, distributing and modifying the GPL licensed software.

In short, the foundation of the GPL is that “Nobody should be restricted by the software they use“. This means, every user should have the freedom to…

• Use the software for any purpose
• Change the software to suit your needs
• Share the software with your friends and neighbors
• Share the changes you make.

This means you can customize Morph beyond recognition, for commercial or non-commercial projects, and share your changes and product with whomever you like.

However:

To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

Read the GPL FAQs

One part of GPL is the option to contribute your changes, bug fixes and improvements back to the original project – something that is always appreciated and helps the product move forward. If you modify Morph, and would like to contribute your code to the project, you’ll make our hard-working developers very happy. For more information, go to “Contribute” here on getmorph.org.

Why is Morph GPL?

Since the very beginning of Morph (2008), going Open Source was one of our many goals. The idea is to make Morph useful for as many Joomla website developers as possible, and at the same time we wanted to make sure our vision of Morph was implemented before releasing the framework into the wild.

The Morph framework is now developed as far as we wanted to do on our own; it’s time to open up the development and access to the world.

This creates the opportunity for you, as a user of Morph, to submit improvements, changes, bug fixes, documentation and more. (or as the Cable Guy would put it; “There’s no end to the possibilities!“)

Which parts of Morph are GPL?

• The Morph template
• The Configurator component
• The Vanilla themelet

You can download all of the above on getmorph.org

What about the themelets?

Beside Vanilla (the base theme), themelets are not GPL and not free. Nothing has changed here; the themelets are still only available in the Joomlajunkie template club, and you must be a member to download them.

How does this impact Joomlajunkie members?

In short, going GPL will mean the following to our members:

• You can now use Morph on as many sites as you want (with Vanilla, not the commercial themelets).
• Morph will become used by a wider audience with more community involvement, which is good for everyone.
• Support and commercial themelets is still only available for Joomlajunkie members.

How can you get involved?

“A crucial aspect of free software is that users are free to cooperate. It is absolutely essential to permit users who wish to help each other to share their bug fixes and improvements with other users.” Source

On getmorph.org we’ll soon publish incubator projects with more specific information.

If you are not a developer, or have time to do big things, here’s a list of small and easy things you can do:

• Say thanks once in a while, for example on the support forum, Twitter, Facebook or in the comments of these blog posts.
• Submit feature requests.
• Give feedback and opinions.
• Report bugs, or even submit patches.
• Spread the word about the Morph framework, for example on Twitter, Facebook or your blog.
• Help in the support forum whenever you can.

(Thanks Dan Cole for the inspiration)