Hallo,
Great templates you’ve got on your website.
The templates I find the most intersting are published under the GNU GPL v3 license. I understand that i can use them, and modify them to make a website (even commercial one).
However it is not clear to me wether I should release the (modified) source of the website ?
In GLPv2 it was talked about “distribution” and it seems that having visitors ‘viewing’/visiting a website is not distributing. But the v3 talks about “to propagate” and “to convey” which are rather confusing terms to me.
Simply said:
I want to use a wordpress template from your site (license GNU GPL v3), modified the code (html/css) to produce a new website which will be put online. Does that mean that I have to release/make available the modified code ?
I appreciate your attention, thanks!
I hope you are well today and thank you for your question.
– I want to use a wordpress template from your site (license GNU GPL v3), modified the code (html/css) to produce a new website which will be put online. Does that mean that I have to release/make available the modified code ?
You can use our theme on your website freely and customize it however you want but if you want to redistribute it then you should maintain the credit that goes to original author of theme that is colorlib.
Using the GNU GPL will require that all the released improved versions be free software. This means you can avoid the risk of having to compete with a proprietary modified version of your own work.
Find more information about these licenses on the following pages.
Thanks for taking the time to reply me.
I have been through some of the links you’ve send, however I can’t find the clear definition of ‘distributing’…
When people visit and view my website, they can view also the source code of it (say with Firebug for example). Is that considered as distributing then ?
If that’s not, then I understand I don’t need to release the modified version (under GPL).
I of course assume the content (uploaded pictures, text etc) of the website does not have to be released under GPL. (the copyright of the content I made stays with me, right?).
Is there any credit needed for using a modified version of your shapely’ theme ? (if so what/where?)
I definitively appreciate your help. Keep up the great work.
Regards,
menm
– When people visit and view my website, they can view also the source code of it (say with Firebug for example). Is that considered as distributing then ?
No it’s not distributing. The only code available for them is HTML and CSS and not PHP which is required part of WordPress theme or plugin bit if you allow users on your site to download whole theme or plugin then it’s distributing.
I of course assume the content (uploaded pictures, text etc) of the website does not have to be released under GPL. (the copyright of the content I made stays with me, right?).
Yes you are right.
Is there any credit needed for using a modified version of your shapely’ theme ? (if so what/where?)
Yes you should maintain credit that goes to original author of theme that is colorlib which is written in theme style.css file.
Thanks again for the prompt answer.
Concerning the crediting: I’d like to get it right:
If I build a child theme of Colorlib’s shapely theme and I adjust some css code to fit my needs, then does that still make it a theme designed by Colorlib ? (I mean that as the credit appearing on the footer of the website reads ‘theme by Colorlib’).
On some Colorlib forum I do read people are simply deleting the footer credit, or moving a credit to another place of their website. What is the actual situation ? When you say ‘you should maintain credit that goes to original author of theme that is colorlib which is written in theme style.css file.’ : may I leave the credit in the style.css file but it does not show up on the actual website (say if I comment it out with */ for example) ? Or do you mean the credit in the header of the stylesheet ?
I do appreciate your work and of course crediting is not an issue. I just want to understand what you mean and what the GPLv2 means, and from that choose the best way that will satisfy everybody.
– If I build a child theme of Colorlib’s shapely theme and I adjust some css code to fit my needs, then does that still make it a theme designed by Colorlib ? (I mean that as the credit appearing on the footer of the website reads ‘theme by Colorlib’).
No the child theme is developed by you so the credit of it goes to you but the parent shapely theme is developed by Colorlib so its credit should go to Colorlib so you can develop child theme and distribute it freely.
On some Colorlib forum I do read people are simply deleting the footer credit, or moving a credit to another place of their website. What is the actual situation ? When you say ‘you should maintain credit that goes to original author of theme that is colorlib which is written in theme style.css file.’ : may I leave the credit in the style.css file but it does not show up on the actual website (say if I comment it out with */ for example) ? Or do you mean the credit in the header of the stylesheet ?
Yes i meant the credit added in the header of style.css file which doesn’t display on website. You can remove the credit displayed in the footer of the site but we recommend not to remove it if it doesn’t affect functionality of your site or there isn’t any solid reason to remove it.
Allright, seems all clear, thanks a million!
Just out of curiosity, about the visible credit footer, why do you “recommend not to remove it if it doesn’t affect functionality of your site or there isn’t any solid reason to remove it” ?
Just out of curiosity, about the visible credit footer, why do you “recommend not to remove it if it doesn’t affect functionality of your site or there isn’t any solid reason to remove it” ?
Because we think this is the receipt of hard work that we did to develop this theme and made it available for you free of charge.
I am thinking to maybe use Illdy instead of Shapely. I see it is published under license GPL v3. I have been through the license text, but I don’t really see the differences between the GPL v2 and GPL v3…
Basically I want : to make a modified version of the theme for making a website for commercial purpose, (without re-distributing it the theme, people juts visit and view the online website) Is that also compatible with the GPL v3 ? And are the conditions for crediting the same (at least up the credit in header of the style.css ?)
And if you have more insights about the difference betwen V2 and V3, feel free to post some ressources.
Basically I want : to make a modified version of the theme for making a website for commercial purpose, (without re-distributing it the theme, people juts visit and view the online website) Is that also compatible with the GPL v3 ?
Yes it is,
And are the conditions for crediting the same (at least up the credit in header of the style.css ?)
No
And if you have more insights about the difference betwen V2 and V3, feel free to post some ressources.
