Mark Jacquith does his best to make WordPress' "themes" look not only technically snaggle-toothed, but also GPL-poisoning. Why he and others in the WordPress community want GPL lock-in so badly for their theme-makers truly boggles my mind. So does the whole notion that API callbacks and shared memory represents some sort of ownership rights transfer.

It isn't correct to think of WordPress and a theme as separate entities. As far as the code is concerned, they form one functional unit. The theme code doesn't sit "on top of" WordPress. It is within it, in multiple different places, with multiple interdependencies. This forms a web of shared data structures and code all contained within a shared memory space.

Ah, yes, how wonderful, a web of sharing between you, your lawyer, and a lamprey with seventeen heads.

The WordPress community could use a good dose of TIMTOWTDI as embodied in MT's approach to contributions (and in perl in general).