Okay, let’s clear up some licensing misconceptions:
First thing first you will have to start from scratch. You can not use other peoples code and then sell it (you can but is very frowned upon and go as far as being sued).
This statement is unequivocally false. Any GPL-licensed work can be used for any purpose, modified in any way, and distributed – for free or for cost – either as-modified or unmodified. You will not be sued for redistributing a GPL-licensed work, modified or unmodified.
I didn’t mean stealing someone elses custom template code and reselling it. What I meant was downloading one of the free templates and starting out with some amount of code even if it’s very basic rather than starting from scratch. Then I would customize the CSS to my liking and sell the custom design. I believe I am allowed to do that as everyone is doing it that way, it’s nothing unusual but very common.
Correct.
The only caveat is that, if the original code is licensed under GPL, then you must retain that original license when re-distributing that work, or when distributing a derivative of that work.
Who is doing this? This is very illegal. If you have permission from the original author, then maybe it would be ok. What you just said is illegal and can result in you being sued, if the author feels the need.
This is another unequivocally false statement, when the original works being discussed are distributed under GPL. In fact, these things are the very freedoms intended to be protected by the GPL.
Just because code is open source, does not make it free to call your own.
There are two issues here: proper copyright attribution, and trademark.
The GPL requires that any re-distributed work, or any distributed derivative work, must retain the original author’s copyright and license declaration. Doing so prevents “claiming copyright” for the work by the downstream author.
Trademark is an entirely separate legal concept from copyright. Many font licenses will say something like, “you are free to modify this Awesome Foobar font, but you can’t call the modified font Awesome Foobar.” That’s a trademark issue, not a copyright issue, and the same would be generally accepted for Themes. Anyone is free to modify Twenty Twelve, and then distribute that modified work, but they would not be able to call their modified work “Twenty Twelve”. They’d need to name it something else.
So, go do a search on Etsy.com for WordPress themes and look at the listings. Are ALL these people doing something illegal by selling these? I can see when I look at certain ones that the code is from a simple child theme layout and they are just customizing it with their own graphics or whatever and making a CUSTOM design. Obviously, they started with a simple bit of code and built upon it. Is this really illegal?
You are correct. That is absolutely not illegal. It is perfectly legal.
So ANY theme whether you purchase it or it’s free is for personal use ONLY???
Not correct. Any GPL Theme, whether free or commercial (paid), you are free to use for any purpose whatsoever.
So, people are buying themes and using free themes and NONE of them are using those themes to create websites for their customers?
Not correct. Again, assuming that said templates and Themes are distributed under GPL, it is perfectly acceptable to use them to make client sites, or to modify and resell, or do whatever you want to do with them.
So, for example, if I take the wordpress Twenty Twelve template to use as a basic layout to start and customize it with graphics, content, widgets, etc. then I can’t sell that design to a customer? Is that correct??????
Not correct. The only stipulation is that your modified version of Twenty Twelve must retain the original license: GPL. Of course, since that work would belong to your client, who would very likely never want to re-distribute it, the license becomes essentially irrelevant.
(The GPL only applies to a work upon distribution. The GPL explicitly says that it does not restrict you in any way to do anything you want to do with a work, unless and until you distribute it.)
So what I’ve learned so far here is that themes are for personal use only. Everyone who is selling custom template/themes where they have modified the CSS style and layout to their customers specifications are doing so illegally. Everyone selling wordpress websites/blogs must code their templates from scratch no matter what and NEVER use a free or purchased theme unless it’s for their personal use only. If this were all true I don’t think WordPress would have many users.
You are correct. None of the above is true. A GPL-licensed Theme can be used for any purpose whatsoever, personal, commercial, or anything else. It is perfectly acceptable under the terms of the license to re-sell a GPL-licensed work, or to sell a modified version of a GPL-licensed work, provided that you retain the original, GPL license on whatever you distribute.
That pretty much sums up what info I’ve gathered from this post and I don’t believe most of it for a minute. I don’t believe either that all the people doing this are breaking the law. I think some people have really bad attitudes that don’t want to tell you how to do something because they fear competition.
I would chalk it up to simple misunderstanding of the license, rather than any ulterior motives such as preventing competition.
Really it is not our place to give legal advice, so we usually just throw out a link to the GPL license and leave it at that.
I will give this bit of legal advice: if you choose to get a Theme from someplace other than the official Theme directory, be aware that not everyone distributes their Themes under GPL. While it is the philosophy and policy of the WordPress project, and anyone affiliated with the WordPress community, that Themes should be distributed under the GPL since WordPress itself is distributed under GPL, not everyone shares that opinion.
Thus, if you get a Theme from such a person, and that Theme is not explicitly distributed under the GPL, you will need to adhere to the terms of whatever license the Theme is distributed under. Otherwise, you may incur liability for copyright infringement.
If you find the terms of such a license to be too restrictive (or the prospect of being liable for copyright infringement – especially if you intend to make and distribute derivative works – too much of a risk), then I would choose not to use such a Theme, and instead find one of the thousands of free and commercial Themes that are licensed under GPL.
