I think this is a very good move. Small Potato–who is no small potato when it comes to WordPress themes–it looks like he has well over 30 well designed themes–has just committed to switching all his themes from Creative Commons licensing to GPL.
What he’s done is very good for the WordPress community. It has been good to see the huge number of themes being made for WordPress over the last few months but disturbing to see how many of them insist that sponsor links remain if you use the theme.
I’m committed to linking back to the theme designer when I use and modify a theme but when I see a theme that requires I keep the links–no matter how good it is–I move on.
Update (4/12/07):Â Matt checks in on the issue of sponsored themes.