Commercial plugins and the WP Repository

Smashingmag just published a very interesting article about how commercial plugin developers use the WordPress repository to their advantage. The article by Siobhan McKeown can be found here.

What is interesting is that it shows several methods (Api keys, Lite versions, etc.) that some developers use to bend the rules a little, since:

a plugin hosted elsewhere (like a “requirements check” plugin) [is] out, but “lite” versions, etc are in

We at BotP are curious what your thoughts are about this and which methods have your (dis)approval.