Legality of changing themes?

  • Hi everyone,
    I’m new to WordPress and am about to make my first website. I’ve watched a bunch of tutorials on how to use it and have experimented with making a website based on the “Twenty Ten” theme.

    My question is:
    Am I allowed to take one of the existing free themes that are available on WordPress and make changes to it? For example: I like the “Elegant Grunge” theme by Michael Tyson but the header is all black with no option to change it. Can I activate that theme, and then try and find the php file that controls the header and modify it to allow me to have a picture as my header? Am I breaking some law or WordPress code of conduct if I do that or make other changes of that nature?

    My apologies if this is a really basic question. I just want to make sure I’m doing things properly and not stepping on toes.

    Thanks!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • All themes on WordPress are open source if you look in the folder you should find the license text file.

    The WordPress Extend themes are released under a GPL license, other themes there is often a comment in style.css, where you will see the terms of use.

    In short yes you can edit the theme files under GPL, I would suggest that you setup a local environment and use a child theme, there are many Google posts on creating child themes!

    A child theme means that you create a new style.css with about four to eight lines, then copy across only the files you want to change and make the changes in the copied file, so this is non-destructive development.

    HTH

    David

    Thread Starter pinkybo

    (@pinkybo)

    Thank you adeptris for the reply. If I make changes to the theme, should I change the bottom of my website from saying “WordPress theme by Michael Tyson” to “WordPress theme adapted from theme by Michael Tyson” or something like that?

    Check if the theme has a licence file with restrictions, however it is nice when the composite or adapted theme keeps a link to the original author, it will depend on if you are selling or wanting to sell web services really.

    Some people, personal sites, webmasters and bloggers leave the credits, others that might be designers or developers remove the credits to rebrand the theme with their own changes and links.

    HTH

    David

    Thread Starter pinkybo

    (@pinkybo)

    ok thanks. I’m wanting it for a personal site so I have no problems with referencing the original author of the theme. Any suggestions on what the best or proper wording would be? The example I gave above, “WordPress theme adapted from theme by Michael Tyson”, seems kinda wordy.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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