Support » Everything else WordPress » Open Source and forking Frameworks

  • Hi,
    I have a few questions about what exactly open source means. I want to create my own framework, because so many of the themes I’ve seen are overbuilt and I want something much simpler. My question is, what are the ethics involved in forking something like _s? Can I change it, make it my own, them make and sell themes based on it? Or would I have to create a whole new Framework, in order to get commercial?

    Thanks.

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  • The idea of “open source” is only that you can read the soruce code of the system. Most people believe that it’s to do with copyright and licensing, but that’s not actually the case.

    WordPress is licenses as GPL, as are all of the plugins and themes (that are hosted on the WordPress site anyway), so what you are proposing is able to be done within the boundaries of the GPL license. In most cases you’ll have to leave the original copyright headers in place, and not claim that the entire thing is your own work.

    As for selling it, that’s more of an ethical issue for you. Personally, I’d find it hard to take someone elses work, integrate it into something that I’ve done and then start selling it without the original author receiving at least some compensation for their work. Other peoples feeling on this issue do vary wildly, so it’s up to you to decide where you sit on that issue.

    Thread Starter UPnDOWN

    (@upndown)

    Thanks.
    I do have a hard time selling other people’s work, GPL or not. But most of what I’ve read about how to design my own framework, suggests building off someone else’s, so I got the impression that it was very common to build off of and sell someone else’s work.
    Plus I just like knowing I did the whole thing.

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