As you may know, all of the extensions listed in the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED) are released under the GPL (Gnu Public License).

In simple terms, this means that anyone may use the code freely. They may also modify it and republish it. However, they have to attribute the original coder for their work. So, you could not take an extension from the JED and republish it without including the original copyright information. This goes for templates and translation files as well.

From time to time, there has been developers who didn't respect this. But, as with most things like this, its eventually discovered. Last year, a developer ripped off a weather plug-in from Rockettheme. There was a lot of commotion in the Joomla community about it, and the culprit had to apologize publicly. The damage was still done. And it takes a lot of time to recover from it.

There are numerous examples of Joomla templates being republished without the proper attribution.

This week - an example of a ripped-off plug-in surfaced in the Joomla community. Or wait... Did it really??

I started my business in 2001. At that time, my company evolved around creating web sites for smaller companies. This is my story.

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving in USA. This holiday, which was originally a religious celebration, is now celebrated as a secular holiday.

The purpose of the celebration is to give thanks and be grateful for what we have.

Both Thanksgiving and the upcoming Christmas means different things to different people.  The holidays might just be an opportunity to take some time off. Nonetheless, I believe it can also be a time to take a step back and look at what's important in life. Get some perspective and be grateful for not being a victim of war, a victim of famine, a victim of repression.

At least I think this holds true for many of the readers of this blog. It does for me.

A recent blog post (and yes, that's a nofollow link...) has made quite an impression on a lot of Joomla users. The blog post is written to give an overview of different Content Management Systems (CMS) and their pros and cons.

However, the author falls into the trap of attacking certain platforms - and Joomla in particular. The way it was done is quite nasty. In my opinion there's no place this kind of subjective, biased ranting in a post comparing different systems. Although I don't think it's hurting the community or adaptation of Joomla, it is important to set the record straight. Many of the commenters in the original post express strong feelings about the author's opinions.

I believe the 'Joomla is Evil' way of saying it was written to provoke and get traffic to the post. However, the author mentions a few negative things about Joomla and I thought I'd dissect them ;)

Internet Explorer 6 continues to be a real pain for web developers, regardless of CMS or development platform. The antiquated browser creates  problems because of it's lacking support for advanced CSS and XHTML and many bugs.

This is nothing new, as the browser has been a nuisance since it was launched in 2001. But now I believe the time has come to abolish IE6 in Joomla Admin.

I've been struggling with a certain Joomla extension lately. Normally, Joomla extensions are quite easy to troubleshoot, and the help provided by the developer is generally good. However, this time I'm talking about a commercial extension, and the support is virtually non-existent. So my question is this: What kind of support should we expect from a commercial provider of Joomla extensions and templates?

This week, I have the pleasure of presenting an interview with Detlef Volmer.

Detlef is from Germany and is the developer behind the Joomla extension called JPodium. I've met Detlef several times and he's a great guy to hang around.

In this interview, he shares some of his experiences with the Joomla community and things he has learned from developing a Joomla extension.

Sarah Watz is the President of Joomla! User Association Sweden, and the CEO of Pixpro, a Joomla consultancy business in Stockholm, Sweden. Sarah is also one of the driving forces behind the new concept called "Joomla!Night". She organized the first such event, which took place in Stockholm in February 2011.

I've met Sarah at several Joomla events, and apart from her being a really nice person, I've noticed she's involved in several aspects of the Joomla project. In this interview, she shares some of her views on Joomla, the community and how you can contribute to the project.

In this video, Matt Thomas talks about his Construct template development framework for Joomla.

Matt won the J.O.S.C.A.R.S award at the J and Beyond 2011 conference for Construct.

Construct Unified is the first template development framework that works alike in Joomla! 1.5, 1.6, the Molajo Joomla 1.6 distribution, and Nooku Server, allowing for a seamless transition of your template. It fuses the power of Construct Pro with new features for unparalleled flexibility.

As with all versions of Construct, Construct Unified doesn't rely on WYSIYG editors or new interfaces. It provides a flexible and powerful foundation for the rapid development of one-of-a-kind templates. A few lines of CSS is all that is needed to create a unique template, expand it further by overriding the core layout and styles on a dynamic basis.

In this video, Alex Bremer of 3B Digital shares some of his insights on working with Joomla in an agency setting.

He also shares his view on the J and Beyond conference.

Alex runs 3B Digital with his brother Jack Bremer. The business is based in Battersea, London and currently employs 12 people.