I think this is missing a point here.

Yes, it’s GPL. Yes you forked a paid plugin, which it is totally fine. However I feel that it’s misleading people slightly.

You see, Bloom, you pay for it, download and install the plugin and it works. You don’t have to jump through any hoops to get it working.

Companies make shrewd business moves all the time that are legal and in the ‘spirit of capitalism’. That’s all fine.

But why this, LeadPages? Why does a company, which receives 27 million dollars in funding require this kind of shortcut? Your core competency is converting leads through opt-in forms and landing pages, that is…

Since my article on Jigoshop-WooCommerce was linked above, I have to comment and say that loads of people were pissed off about that as well and didn’t feel it was true to the spirit of the GPL. LeadPages forking Bloom feels similar, but worse.

In Jigoshop-WooCommerce, WooThemes forked a free plugin and became a competitor…

Appreciate your follow-up here as well as via Twitter, Clay. Your willingness to post — and continue to dive in to the conversation — shows real leadership.

Good move to make numerous (and material) value-added additions to the plugin. If there is a next time for this kind of move, add those first and also layout a timeline…

So, it’s ok to take a GPL licenced plugin that took a company a year of investment, make a couple of small changes, force an email opt-in and then offer it for free as my own product. WOW! In a week, I will have my own plugin company with a range of free products and in a month I will have a massive mailing list to spam. Thanks Clay for the tip.

I’ve read all the comments so far and seen various other commentary across the Internet. No one has said you can’t do what you’ve done. But a lot of people question your motives. That a company as large as yours and VC backed would offer up (for free) a premium plugin from an honest hard working company like ET…. You lack all morality and should be…