WordPress theme copyright

[ToBeSomething]

Hello,

I have created a WordPress theme and selling it on my website and today found out that someone else is selling the same theme, with a different name/logo, etc. on their website.

Is this legal? Is there something I can do?

 

[Dark Sky]

If you made it, and they are selling it without your permission, then no, you 100% can sue.

Its your intellectual property since you created it.

 

[ToBeSomething]

If you made it, and they are selling it without your permission, then no, you 100% can sue.

Its your intellectual property since you created it.

But I'm from US, while the copycat is from India!

 

[fcfeedback]

Maybe try to contact payment processor.

 

[JB2302]

you cal also contact the hosting provider to take down his hosting and do the same for the domain name.

 

[llarasati]

Yes, that is called DMCA ask google to remove it or do like mentioned above

 

[Dark Sky]

But I'm from US, while the copycat is from India!

Add some malicious code in, force an update on his side?

 

[MisterXYZ]

Contact hosting provider.

Report to Google.

Send a legal sounding notice.

 

[RRunner]

Wow. Everybody here is wrong.

All themes and plugins developed on the WordPress platform are governed by the GNU public license.

https://wordpress.org/about/license/

In general, it means that any theme or plugin is derivative of WP and inherits the GNU license which makes themes and plugins freely available to anyone who wants to modify, redistribute or sell them.

You could try and protect your theme by encrypting parts of the code. Or you could develop on a platform that is not public.

 

[SEOMadHatter]

It depends. There's an argument people make that any WordPress theme or plugin is on that free license which is why sites resell them for dirt cheap. There are popular ones here on BHW as a prime example. I've seen arguments on both ends of this but I'm not a lawyer so I'll not pretend to know how a court case would go.

As others have said you might be able to scare them away with a harshly worded email to their payment provider or host. In reality, if they're doing this on any kind of scale that's not going to work. If someone wants to resell your theme they're going to do it. There are much bigger providers with deeper pockets than you who haven't been able to stop this for years.

Even if you did manage to do something about it they only need to make some small changes and then they're able to sell it as their own. You can disagree with this all you want but I have entire business models based on this. You really don't need to change things all that much for them to be considered unique.

TL;DR I disagree with the advice here. There's not going to be a whole lot you can really do just focus on the things you can control.

 

[NiteCobain]

Wow. Everybody here is wrong.

All themes and plugins developed on the WordPress platform are governed by the GNU public license.

https://wordpress.org/about/license/

In general, it means that any theme or plugin is derivative of WP and inherits the GNU license which makes themes and plugins freely available to anyone who wants to modify, redistribute or sell them.

You could try and protect your theme by encrypting parts of the code. Or you could develop on a platform that is not public.

Interesting. On that page they also say that if you disagree you can use another license.

 

[Johnik]

Wow. Everybody here is wrong.

All themes and plugins developed on the WordPress platform are governed by the GNU public license.

https://wordpress.org/about/license/

In general, it means that any theme or plugin is derivative of WP and inherits the GNU license which makes themes and plugins freely available to anyone who wants to modify, redistribute or sell them.

You could try and protect your theme by encrypting parts of the code. Or you could develop on a platform that is not public.

Oh, so you make a theme and i change the logo and sell it as my own property. Every thing is ok, you cannot do anything... I do not think it works like that.

 

[RRunner]

Oh, so you make a theme and i change the logo and sell it as my own property. Every thing is ok, you cannot do anything... I do not think it works like that.

That is exactly how it works.

Read the license and use Google to read more about it.

If you don't like it then don't develop on WP. Use another platform that is not governed by GNU.

You can try and use obfuscated code or server-side authentication to make it harder for people to resell your theme.

 

[Dark Sky]

That is exactly how it works.

Read the license and use Google to read more about it.

If you don't like it then don't develop on WP. Use another platform that is not governed by GNU.

You can try and use obfuscated code or server-side authentication to make it harder for people to resell your theme.

No, no its not, its intellectual property not owned by WP.

 

[Panther28]

No, no its not, its intellectual property not owned by WP.

He's not claiming it is.

 

[RRunner]

No, no its not, its intellectual property not owned by WP.

It is WP's intellectual property. A theme or plugin is a derivative work that requires the WP platform to run.

I posted a link to the WP license so you can read it yourself.

You can also use Google to search for articles about it.

WordPress threatened to sue Thesis over the way they developed and marketed their themes. Thesis backed down - sort of.

As far as I could find the GPL has never been challenged in court. Probably because of the prohibitive costs.

Developers who want to lock down their themes usually encrypt with something like ion cube or use server side authentication.

This article has lots of info and links to past legal opinions and arguments....

http://wpandlegalstuff.com/wordpress-themes-gpl-conundrum-derivative-works/

 

[Dark Sky]

It is WP's intellectual property. A theme or plugin is a derivative work that requires the WP platform to run.

I posted a link to the WP license so you can read it yourself.

You can also use Google to search for articles about it.

WordPress threatened to sue Thesis over the way they developed and marketed their themes. Thesis backed down - sort of.

As far as I could find the GPL has never been challenged in court. Probably because of the prohibitive costs.

Developers who want to lock down their themes usually encrypt with something like ion cube or use server side authentication.

This article has lots of info and links to past legal opinions and arguments....

http://wpandlegalstuff.com/wordpress-themes-gpl-conundrum-derivative-works/

You posted a link to the site that states its a grey area, based on exactly that, in a court in pretty sure its your intellectual property rights once a lot is modified

 

[skyward]

This has been so informative. I guess that’s how Festinger’s site continues to be perfectly working. Touch wood.

Wow. Everybody here is wrong.

All themes and plugins developed on the WordPress platform are governed by the GNU public license.

https://wordpress.org/about/license/

In general, it means that any theme or plugin is derivative of WP and inherits the GNU license which makes themes and plugins freely available to anyone who wants to modify, redistribute or sell them.

You could try and protect your theme by encrypting parts of the code. Or you could develop on a platform that is not public.

 

[skyward]

Is it the same with HTML bootstrap themes?

 

[RRunner]

You posted a link to the site that states its a grey area, based on exactly that, in a court in pretty sure its your intellectual property rights once a lot is modified

Well, that hasn't been the legal opinion, though it has never been tested in court.

It would be prohibitively expensive to go to a court to get a legal ruling. As far as I can find, it has only been taken as far as getting legal opinions from law centres not a legal ruling from a court.

WP and Thesis engaged in a lot of name calling but it never went so far as WP enforcing their license terms on Thesis with court action because Thesis backed down and started following the GPL. We'll never know if WP was willing to put their money where their mouth was and actually follow through on their threat to sue.

It is WP's platform and it is their TOS and license. All WP Themes and Plugins use the WP platform.

It's like saying it's my video and my intellectual property so YouTube has no right to delete it. While YouTube says as long as you use our platform you need to follow our TOS.

But this is getting a bit far from OP's problem.

There isn't much he can do legally. Even if he had legal grounds since the other site is in India.

As suggested earlier, a stern C&D letter may scare them into stopping.

And developers can use code obfuscation or other mechanisms to make it difficult to resell.

And a DMCA complaint may work even if it doesn't really apply. Often hosts/platforms will err on the side of self preservation and find it easier just to honor the complaint.

Is it the same with HTML bootstrap themes?

No. Only WP because WP is licensed under GPL. If you code your own stand-alone solution it would be yours. If you use a platform that has a different license structure then you would be bound by whatever licensing the platform uses.

As suggested by WP:
"... you might want to consider a non-GPL platform such as Serendipity (BSD licence) instead."

The BSD license is open source (Linux uses it) but it does not require that you share source code or publicly allow others to build on your work. So you can create software and keep it proprietary if you want.