At what point is a Theme your own ?

  • Hi all,

    Having intially started using Gray Gets Green it has now been changed to suit my needs and was wondering at what point that you change a theme can you call it your own design (if at all) as most themes are just variations of others anyway and are sometimes claimed by some as being their own design.

    The themes changes are:

    1. Widgets function added.
    2. New Navigation Menu at the bottom of the page.
    3. Colour change.
    4. Subpages only show when on single relevant page.
    5. Comments function changed. (now shows random quote in side bar)
    6. Added ‘About’ box in sidebar.
    7. Width changed to 900px.
    8. Shows random images in sidebar.
    9. On single post, function to show ‘More Information’ in sidebar through Meta function.
    10. To be added: Breadcrumb function (just trying different plugins)

    I know some are cosmetic changes but it no longer looks much like the original, thoughts on a postcard please, I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering the same!

    Regards

    Site Here

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • You should check with the original theme’s author about their license on the theme, and if they allowing removing attribution.

    Nice site and photos, BTW. What you have there is probably a “derivative work.” You may want to check the theme designer’s license. Usually you are allowed to change to your heart’s content without problem. And you did the right thing so far by keeping the original designer’s credit and adding that you’d modified it.

    It’s a gray area still as to how much something can change before it no longer even remotely resembles the original work.

    As I said, it’ always a good idean to check the lic. for the theme (most are released under a very lenient creative commons license).

    We have created many WP themes and I’m usually always very pleasantly surprised to see how creative people can be with our themes. I’ve had some folks email and ask me about credit when they have tweaked a theme of ours and my PERSONAL attitude is this: You worked hard on it, changed the design elements, stylesheet, etc., so that it’s no longer recognizable as ours so you deserve the credit for it. Some others may not feel so charitable. But themes are out there to foster creativity and growth, IMHO, so ..

    Just drop a note to the theme’s author thanking him for his theme, tell him you’ve learned a great deal from it and have changed it, here’s the link, and see his reaction. I’m sure it will be fine to drop it altogether.

    Thread Starter EyePhoto

    (@eyephoto)

    Thanks for the quick replies, the license is standard GPL and I will leave the credit on the site (being a photographer copyright and giving credit is a major issue.) it’s just others have passed comments on the site and it’s (non)resemblance to the original and I was just curious about others thoughts on the subject.

    I’ve seen a lot of themes very similar to others without any attribution but it’s a fine line I suppose when the original theme template is a starting point for everyone.

    Thanks also for the comments re the site, it’s always nice to hear your work is appreciated.

    Regards

    Leon

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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