Justin Tadlock has written about the four core freedoms of open source, and warned that with some of the WooThemes drama that happened in the last couple of weeks, he heard some words and tones that didn’t match the ethos of open source freedoms.
I may have missed exactly where people were slamming the ethics of forking or utilizing these core freedoms of open source code with all of that drama. I was one, and a part of, those that didn’t approve of how it was done, but I (I can only speak for myself here) have nothing against the practice itself. I completely agree with Justin in regard to these fundamental freedoms, and what that means.
Brian, I just wanted to say that I agreed with the things you wrote. I had the same feelings about how it was done. But, he/they definitely got some feedback from others that I considered to be against the philosophy of open source. My guess is that some of it was said out of anger over how things went down.
This isn’t just a one-time thing though, which is why I didn’t want to focus too much on that one story. I often see people hint at the practice being wrong or even flat out say it at times.