As Cais and Emil have both said: adding derivative Themes to the Repository is perfectly fine, with are a couple caveats:<div><br></div><div>1) The derivative work must exhibit some *substantial* difference from the original work. (This is an entirely subjective evaluation.) </div>
<div>2) While GPL provides full *copyright* license rights, the owner of the original work retains the *trademark* rights, including the Theme name. It is on this point that I think that, if the original Theme *name* is to be used/referenced (such as "iBlog Reloaded" or "Son of iBlog", etc.), that such use should come with permission from the owner of the original work. If you want to rename your derivative work something entirely different from the name of the original work, I see no problem whatsoever. This is consistent with the existing Theme Review guidelines:</div>
<div><br></div><div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div><span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Themes are </span><b style="text-align:left;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">not</b><span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> to use related Theme names (e.g. </span><i style="text-align:left;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">WP Twenty Eleven</i><span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">, </span><i style="text-align:left;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Twenty Eleven WP</i><span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">, </span><i style="text-align:left;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">The Twenty Eleven</i><span style="font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:22px;text-align:left;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">, etc.) in their name.</span></div>
</blockquote></div><div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div><br></div><div>Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Edward Caissie <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:edward.caissie@gmail.com" target="_blank">edward.caissie@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">It's been brought to my attention recently that I am not being very clear in my communications ...<br><br>As @Frumph noted, the theme is licensed as GPL-compatible (not exactly sure what version or license to be honest, but it does reside in the repository so it is).<br>
As the theme is GPL-compatible and the OP stated their intentions were to improve and re-submit with proper attribution to the original theme author, I see the OP as keeping to some of the more important aspects of the "GPL" and that being the case actually encourage them to continue forward.<br>
<br>I recommended contacting PageLines (as this is a specific theme being addressed and they are the author) just in case they want to be involved in this "reboot" of the iBlog theme. Again, the specifics from the OP, but this applies to any theme in the repository ... and as such I would make the same recommendation to contact (or at least take reasonable steps to contact) the original author. This can accomplish many things, such as: bringing forward code that has not been submitted by the original author, a "blessing" by the original author (or at least an acknowledgment); etc.<br>
<br>Of course, there are existing guidelines the "new" theme author should be specifically aware of, as @Emil pointed out with the derivative works guidelines; but otherwise, as I noted before, I encourage the "new" theme author to dive in, make some improvements, bring the theme to current standards and best practices as they apply and submit it with the proper attribution to the original work / author ... and hopefully it does not need to be added all other current guidelines should be followed as well (*grin*)<br>
<br><br clear="all">Cais.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:35 AM, Bryan Hadaway <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bhadaway@gmail.com" target="_blank">bhadaway@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5">
Yeah, I see this done all the time with plugins. A plugin author stops updating it and someone else updates it and re-releases it appending with <i>Extended</i> or <i>Ultimate</i> on the end of the original name. I've never seen this done without attribution to the original plugin and developer. Though not necessary under GPL, the decent and helpful thing to do.<br clear="all">
<br><br>Bryan Phillip Hadaway<br>
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