Question on downloading paid wordpress themes for free

Serjaydee

Serjaydee

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If you would like to use elegant themes, you'll have to buy them for $37? And you get all themes in the package.


But there are some generous members that are giving them away for free which is nice.


But if I use one to make a site, that who knows maybe a good site someday, what are the chances of the makers of the theme to discover I didn't pay for them because they we're just given to me?


I guess I want to know if will they come after me if I got their themes from someone else?


Anyone ever encountered this scenario before?

What are the chances of this happening?

I didn't see any thread that talked about this or any article I've googled.

If you know any, please share me the link
 
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Unlikely but if you're making a white hat site you should pay.

Personally I don't wanna get sued for tens of thousands of dollars.
 
If theme has full GPL license - like Elegant's - then it's legally okay, it's just unethical. Different case with split licensed themes like the ones on ThemeForest.

But the problem is you won't have the advantages of paid members like theme support or updates.
 
I guess I want to know if will they come after me if I got their themes from someone else?
Click to expand...

f theme has full GPL license - like Elegant's - then it's legally okay,
Click to expand...

All themes are GPL license.

You should worry how to market your project first
 
^ Most themes on ThemeForest (and some theme providers) are split licensed - only PHP & HTML covered by GPL while other components such as graphics and CSS have different license that disallow redistribution.
 
I paid for a theme, I didn't pay for a license. That's not how it works, but that's how I look at it. I have to customize the theme to suit my needs. I alter the theme with very little help and support.

If a company wants to sue me over licensing of some organized code that didn't give me shit to start with, I'll see them in court.

That being said, if you're worried about it, download it.... if it's successful, pay for it later.

I do feel these guys should get some credit for working hard, when it's deserved. However, some themes SUCK and are extremely difficult to edit. They are not universal... and you're sucked into thinking your site will look like the demo site for 50 bucks.
 
flipitup said:
If theme has full GPL license - like Elegant's - then it's legally okay, it's just unethical. Different case with split licensed themes like the ones on ThemeForest.

But the problem is you won't have the advantages of paid members like theme support or updates.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I actually paid for those themes because I'm making money with them. Ethical question only.

I doubt they will come after you and prove that you actually downloaded it somewhere. You could have bought domain with the theme from someone who owns the licence.
 
Its a balance, do you want to take the risk or not?
 
No offense to you op, but this post is amusing. There is no secret link on themes that say this theme was meant for John Smith. Even if their was, if John Smith is a developer of websites and paid for the theme then he has the rights to use it on as many websites as he wants. There is no way of them proving that you are not suppose to have this theme. Let's just say they do. Do you think they are going to sue somebody over a 35/50 dollar theme. It will cost them more money to bring you to court.
 
It is very hard to find such happenings.
But I suggest you at start you can use that retail copies but when you earn enough you should always take license copy of theme so that you will be on safer side.
 
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