Posted 2 years ago #
Hello,
I have been reading older posts regarding wordpress licence. It's not clear to me how it works. Please answer a few question and help me understand the extent of wordpress licence.
1) If I make a site for a paying customer using WordPress am I "required" to give the client the source code?
2) Would the client own the code? Or will the site's code belong to the public?
3) Am I allowed to modify WordPress and put my own logo in the admin sections?
Not too sure, but I think it is the following.
1) If I make a site for a paying customer using WordPress am I "required" to give the client the source code?
Well, you must allow the person to get access to the source code so just giving the website to your customer is enough as they will have full access to the WordPress files anyway (as long as you don't encode them).
2) Would the client own the code? Or will the site's code belong to the public?
WordPress is under open source so it would be public. Any code you do in relation to plugins and themes is a different story and you would be best to research those.
3) Am I allowed to modify WordPress and put my own logo in the admin sections?
You are allowed to modify WordPress in anyway you want. Just makes sure that if you use the name WordPress anyway you are doing correctly.
I might be incorrect with these, so hopefully someone else will answer and confirm.
Posted 2 years ago #
Thank you for your response.
1) You said the code would belong to the public. I understand that wordpress code belongs to the public. But what about the code I write on top of wordpress?
2) If I build a site for a client and put it on my own server am I required to give him the code? Or am I allowed charge for "Software as Service" where the client doesn't own the code?
1) You said the code would belong to the public. I understand that wordpress code belongs to the public. But what about the code I write on top of wordpress?
Well, in theory one could debate that you are just adding code to WordPress and thus it is covered by the open source licence. You may be better off contacting legal advice in this case.
2) If I build a site for a client and put it on my own server am I required to give him the code? Or am I allowed charge for "Software as Service" where the client doesn't own the code?
Well in theory, you don't need to hand any code to your client but if I was your client, I would be really annoyed if you made a website for me and didn't give me the actual code.
Once again, you would be advice to contact actual legal advice as these forums can only say so much sadly.
Posted 2 years ago #
Does your client know you wil be utilising WordPress and that is Open Source/Free?
I always make sure that clients are well aware that I will be using WordPress and that they are not paying for the "software" but paying for my time to install/configure, insert content, edit/enhance, and template design, then any web hosting costs and technical support.
The code you write on top is copyrighted to you but some companies prefer to hand over the copyright while retaining intellectual rights. This can build trust with your client and ensures that if your company goes bust, their website wouldn't be lost.
I agree with Snat in that I would be annoyed if I paid a lot of money for a website that I didn't then own, I would also be annoyed if I discovered at a later date that the software powering my site was freely available to download and install, regardless of the extra coding that went into the site.
If I was doing work for a client and had those questions I would want to consult a lawyer before signing any contract with the client.
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