WordPress.org

1. MAK
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Hello there.

   I am not very hip when it comes to lawyer issues such as copyright and licenses.

   What I wanted to know is if a theme is distributed with GPL what does that really mean for me?

   Correct me if I am wrong but the way I understand it is GPL basically says that I can take the theme, hack it up and make any changes I want to it and then I can distribute it to others for free or sell it. Am I right?

   So, if I am my question for coming here is about credit links and copyright messages. Let's say I downloaded a theme YOU made and you have a credit link in the footer and also sidebar link area, lets also say you put a little copyright message too in the footer -- BUT you distributed the theme as GPL -- does that imply I can remove those links and copyright info if I wanted too? If GPL allows me to hack stuff however I want to me that implies I can remove the links and credit too, right?

   Now don't get me wrong. I am not trying to do anything sneaky or backhanded here. I actually don't mind giving credit where credit is due but I prefer control over how it's done. I would rather give credit and mention any of their copyrights in my "About" page than to have it mis-match my theme's look and design and muck it all up.

   So not only am I asking about the "Powered by WordPress" but also theme authors who place back-links and copyright notices in one or more places, often the footer and sometimes depending on my site design I don't even use a footer area.

2. MAK
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Correct me if I am wrong but the way I understand it is GPL basically says that I can take the theme, hack it up and make any changes I want to it and then I can distribute it to others for free or sell it. Am I right?

   I meant to expand more on this - I also meant to say that after I make many changes or even just a few I can then distribute it as my own work with my own copyright and license if I wanted to, right?

3. figaro
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   I also meant to say that after I make many changes or even just a few I can then distribute it as my own work with my own copyright and license if I wanted to, right?

   No. You can't take a GPL product and copyright it...once GPL always GPL. Yes, you can sell it, but you can't prevent others from freely distributing it...for example, I could make a couple of changes to the WordPress code and offer it for sale on my site (in fact, I wouldn't even need to change it...I could offer it for sale as is)...if I could find someone naive enough to buy it, then good for me, but I can't put a copyright on it and prevent them from turning around and re-distributing it for free.

4. MAK
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Thanks for your reply figaro,

   Yeah I made a mistake mentioning copyrighting it after I make changes to it, but can you answer the part of the question I really wanted to know about? hehe

   I wanted to know what I am allowed to do in terms of removing/ or moving the copyright notices and link-backs / credit links. I mean if I wanted too, as long as it is distributed via a GPL license can I freely remove any and all credit/copyright notices?

   You can't take a GPL product and copyright it

   You said this and at first I understood, but then I started to think about things I have downloaded, many times if not always it says copyright by so and so distributed with GPL etc etc. How does this relate to what you just said?

   I just want to understand better my rights in this situation. For example - I downloaded a couple themes for WordPress; both have copyright by so-and-so notices in the footer along with the "Powered by WordPress" text and in the code it mentions the GPL distibution and the files include the license.

   Anyhow, one theme I changed slightly for my own use basically fixed a couple of code errors to make it validate or to do something different, the rest of it was CSS changes for the most part. The second theme I completely tore up, and rewrote a lot of it or added some of my own code and again it had the same copyright/ footer links etc also with GPL. This second theme is one I was considering on redistributing as a theme naming myself in the credits.

   So again, what are my rights in this regard?

   Thanks

5. Jan Dembowski
   Volunteer Mod. & Brute Squad
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Read this http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html Then read it again.

   This second theme is one I was considering on redistributing as a theme naming myself in the credits.

   Knock yourself out, but in the credits attribute the work to the original author and include yourself as "modified by". It's copyrighted by the original author and they get credit for their work.

   See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IWantCredit

   I want to get credit for my work. I want people to know what I wrote. Can I still get credit if I use the GPL?

   You can certainly get credit for the work. Part of releasing a program under the GPL is writing a copyright notice in your own name (assuming you are the copyright holder). The GPL requires all copies to carry an appropriate copyright notice.

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