Movable Type’s Anil Dash today announced that the popular blogging platform is being GPL’d, as Movable Type Open Source. It’s now open source and free for any use.

The change makes sense for MT. WordPress was threatening to marginalize the Movable Type platform.¬† WordPress’s openness has been attracting the attention of developers and it’s become very popular for podcasting and other new media uses, as a result.

The move is also great for users. Movable Type is a mature platform that was limited by its licensing. Now both the Movable Type and WordPress communities will benefit from competition and collaboration between the two platforms.