[theme-reviewers] Envato’s License Changes For The Worse

[Japheth Thomson]

Hi Daniel,

Envato don't dictate a seller's licensing options any more than the
WordPress.org theme directory does. They just have a different licensing
option, and theme authors are free to go elsewhere if they don't like
either of those environments.

You say that "By accepting Envato's new licensing conditions, they are
essentially accepting that Envato owns their products.", however, by the
same token making their themes 100% GPL would essentially be saying that
anyone owns their products. They lose all control over their distribution.

ThemeForest does not claim to be "an open and free" marketplace, but
there's certainly nothing counter-competitive or anti-trusting going on
from Envato.

Cheers,
Japh




On 25 January 2013 16:25, Daniel Tara <contact at onedesigns.com> wrote:

> In the many years in which I have been involved with the software
> development and open source community I have never seen such utter
> disrespect towards the community and ignorance towards the legal
> requirements of open source licenses and such gibberish and nonsense
> blabbered about it. Just who exactly do Envato think they to dictate a
> seller's licensing options? Only the copyright owner has the right to
> decide which licese their product uses. By accepting Envato's new licensing
> conditions, they are essentially accepting that Envato owns their products.
> I don't care that officially the authors are still the legal owners, just
> take a look at the facts: Envato dictates prices, sales commissions and
> licensing terms. They're not an open and free marketplace, they're an
> obese, rigid, dictatorial, monopolist, counter-competitive and anti
> trusting corporation that has only one aim: profit and uses only one
> weapon: market dominance. A huge boycott should be played on them and if
> there are authors who really care out there they will react to it.
>
> Rant over.
> Daniel
>
> On Jan 25, 2013, at 3:19 AM, Emil Uzelac wrote:
>
> all righty good enough for me :)
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:16 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>
>> Given that, under current policy, we wouldn't approve an upsell Theme for
>> which the commercial version was hosted on ThemeForest: no, it doesn't
>> really change anything.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at themeid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> it does if the Pro version of the Theme is linked to TF right?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 5:51 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Since we already currently do not accept Themes from developers who
>>>> sell on ThemeForest, I would only extend the current WPF-WordCamp-Envato
>>>> discussion so far as to say that if/when Envato allows their developers to
>>>> choose a 100% GPL-compatible license for their Themes, then I believe that
>>>> any Theme developers who choose to use such a license would be welcome to
>>>> submit Themes for inclusion in the wp.org Theme directory.
>>>>
>>>> Otherwise, it really doesn't impact the Theme directory or the Theme
>>>> Review Team, I think.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 4:47 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at themeid.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> FYI: http://themeshaper.com/2013/01/24/envato-license/
>>>>>
>>>>> P.S. Any questions, please post them on ThemeShaper instead.
>>>>> I am just a messenger.
>>>>>
>>>>> Emil
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>
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-- 
Japh Thomson
WordPress Evangelist
http://wp.envato.com
http://twitter.com/envato
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