Can I put in Github the code of a abandoned plugin I want to fork?

Question

My friends. I want to know if I can create a repository of abandoned plugin of wp.org that the author is not mantaining make 2 years.

The plugin is this:

https://br.wordpress.org/plugins/send-emails-for-woocommerce/

I just want to know if I will have problem with the law if I put it in the Github because is a third party plugin, even if I mantain the author in the readme.txt. Thanks!

Edit: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/can-i-takeover-this-plugin-it-seems-to-be-abandoned-after-2-years-w-o-update/

Answer 1

I‘m not a lawyer but a plugin developer. As far as I know you ca republish any GPL code. The only thing you should do first is

• try to reach the author in the forum
• have a look at the plugin files, maybe there’s an email address where you can try to reach out to the author

If both doesn’t work just fork it. This is the recommended process to take over a plugin if it seems to be abandoned.

Answer 2

Yes as long as you don't violate the original license, all plugins on .org are GPL or GPL compatible, so your fork must be too.

Keep in mind though that for legal matters, you should consult professional legal advice rather than stack exchange

For reference:

• Plugins must be compatible with the GNU General Public License v2 or later. If a license is not specified, code will be considered “GPLv2 or later.”

Taken from https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/