Future work simular to punbb; Code stealing or not?

It's GPL, do whatever you bloody well want with it. And there's nothing wrong with using a config.php, about everyone does it I think

there was only 1 original idea, everything else has copied that.

most programming follows the same type of logic.  if you line for line copy punbb, then you have to abide by punbb's license.  if you learn from what rickard has done and apply his style of coding to your code base then its not his software but your own.

there is nothing wrong with proprietary code (not that you can really hide the php like you can compiled executables).

no, I think you misunderstand the use of that word:

  Proprietary \Pro*pri"e*ta*ry\, n.; pl. Proprietaries. [L.
     proprietarius: cf. F. propri['e]taire. See Propriety, and
     cf. Proprietor.]
     1. A proprietor or owner; one who has exclusive title to a
        thing; one who possesses, or holds the title to, a thing
        in his own right. --Fuller.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A body proprietors, taken collectively.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Eccl.) A monk who had reserved goods and effects to
        himself, notwithstanding his renunciation of all at the
        time of profession.
        [1913 Webster]

proprietary means you own the exclusive rights to the source code. the computer has been around since atleast WWII.  nobody re-invented the computer, they re-made it (and did so in complete ignorance of the existence of the computer invented to crack the enigma code back then).  xorg did not invent windowing, they remade it.  point of the matter is: you don't need source code, schematics, blue prints, specifications, use cases, uml or any other modeling <thing> to copy something.  the little gray thing between your ears is all you need.

beyond this, I'm not even going to touch what you've said, because I hate economics, but understand how these things work.  R&D, architecture, and anything else that has to be done, does not typically impact the cost of goods as the actual production of it.  people are the biggest liability in manufacturing (or software engineering) because we make mistakes.  Have you not ever read about the industrial revolution?  there is a reason things are automated.  when you remove people from production, you not only save money (which is passed on to the consumer) but you save costs involved with defect management.    if you have an automobile manufacturer who produces 10 cars a day using 500 employees, the price of that car is (in its most basic of terms) the cost of 500 employees times the number of hours spent building it.  I can assure you that that cost is going to exceed the architect who drew the plans for the auto on a computer.  now, you remove 495 of those employees, you now have 495 people who no longer have any income, cannot buy bread, let alone a vehicle, and are able to produce 500 automobiles a day.  the problem is, you now have a surplus of goods, and nobody to buy them.

fact is, there are no groups around today who do not use some form of currency.  this means that the basis of life must revolve around obtaining that form of currency (be it money, cows, crops or whatever).  how well would you be able to sustain life as a cow farmer if you open sourced your cattle?  anyone is free to come take your livestock, and all you ask is for a non-compulsory donation.

there is nothing wrong with proprietary software because chances are, its not going to be some new concept like quantum physics that nobody else is going to figure out how to do.  meanwhile you're able to participate in your environment because it enables you to obtain some form of "currency" because you have what somebody needs (like the cows) and cannot provide for themselves.

I'd love to live in a world where everybody serves everyone else without pay, but I'm also a realist, and understand that thats not going to happen in my lifetime.

my profession is software engineering.  I also maintain multiple open source projects, and participate by publishing things about software engineering that I find interesting (feel free to check my blog).  I definitely believe in charging for software, owning source code that I do not ever publish.  I also believe in sharing (open source is how I got into this field).  there is absolutely nothing wrong with either IMO.