Theme Licenses

  • As a non-designer, excuse my ignorance.

    Attribution and ‘tagging’ of work are important to graphic artists.

    I have just downloaded some theme’s / layouts from the list in this forum. None of them indicated which – if any – licence they were being released under, or even if they were fully copyrighted and I was unable to alter anything whatsoever.

    This post isn’t about starting arguments, more about saving them.

    Should we ask that all layouts / themes and styles are explicitly put under some sort of license by their author ? And that all the appropriate documentation is included in the download ?
    Is this something that would be good ? As it stands, it looks a bit of a mishmash…..

Viewing 6 replies - 16 through 21 (of 21 total)

  • It’s up to authors to become familiar with the various licenses out there and how best to use them.

    true, however imo

    Should we ask that all layouts / themes and styles are explicitly put under some sort of license by their author ? And that all the appropriate documentation is included in the download ?

    i would say if you do that itd be good to have a short paragraph explaining the options and recommending a license. Just something simple.

    I had a look on the various GNU and CC license sites and found it quite confusing. Like is there a reason why I should choose GNU over CC? Ive included a GNU license but because Im so unsure Im almost tempted to remove it and just put an explanatory paragraph myself.

    Of course this all reliant on people ACTUALLY reading it (the licenses or readmes that is).

    If you distribute a plugin, it must have a GPL compatible license. CC is not a source code license and is not appropriate for plugins.

    Themes are another matter. There is an informally acknowledged loophole (similar to the arrangement with Linux kernel drivers) whereby theme templates are not considered combined works of WP even though they call into WP API. Of course, informally acknowledged doesn’t have much legal standing. CSS doesn’t call into WP at all, so it won’t be considered a combined work.

    The GPL only kicks in if you distribute your changes. If you keep your plugins and themes to yourself, you are not obligated to show your source.

    So, if you distribute a plugin, it needs to be GPL compatible. If you distribute a theme that is wholly your own, you can give it whatever license you want. For best legal safety, however, make the templates GPL compatible. The CSS can be left as proprietary.

    Making the license under which you release your plugin or theme clear is a good thing. In the US and other countries, copyright is automatic. If you don’t see specific license information, assuming “all rights reserved” is safest since you don’t know the author’s intentions.

    The only thing officially sanctioned by WP (whoever that is) is the WP distribution itself, the whole of which is released under the GPL. Anything hosted at wp-plugins.org must be GPL compatible.

    Read the GPL FAQ.

    Standard disclaimer: IANAL nor do I play one on TV.

    OK, let me see if I’ve got this right: any code that includes WP functions should be GPL’d but you can choose your own license for the CSS. Thanks rboren for clearing that up.

    In practice, I think very few people will bother having separate licenses for theme components, and will therefore release the whole theme under the GPL or a compatible license. And designers who, for one reason or another, find the terms of the GPL unacceptable can continue to provide stylesheets for existing GPL templates under a license of their choice.

    somefool: there is nothing in the GPL to stop you crediting yourself in the template, however the GPL does allow people to remove it if they don’t want it to be visible. They are not allowed to remove your copyright declaration in the source code. So people can redistribute it, but they can’t pass it off as their own work.

    How and where do we have to apply for these licenses…

    how much time it takes ?

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html

Viewing 6 replies - 16 through 21 (of 21 total)
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