[theme-reviewers] Guidelines when revamping existing parent theme or framework

[Edward Caissie]

I don't recall exactly where in the guidelines it ended up but you seem to
be describing what was being called a derivative work.

The guideline was written to the effect: derivative works are fine provided
they are functionally different or significantly different in design. A
minor change such as the background color, for example, is not significant
enough whereas swapping the columns of a two-column layout should be
significant enough.

Also to note, once Child-Themes are officially approved for acceptance into
the repository the derivative works "definition" will likely change as for
the most part derivative works are achievable as a Child-Theme than as a
separate theme standing on its own.


Cais.


On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 6:54 PM, Mario Peshev <mario at peshev.net> wrote:

> It's a theme by the same author -
> http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/nostalia26 . Has no sidebar, but it's
> pretty much the same (index and single post view styling).
>
> He has added credits to the readme.txt file, but it's not just copying, it
> looks like cloning to me.
>
> Mario Peshev
> freelance software developer/trainer
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/mpeshev
> http://peshev.net/blog
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 1:51 AM, Daniel Fenn <danielx386 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> While I don't do any theme reviews, but does the GPL allows that sort of
>> thing? Also what the link to the other theme that you saw that look the
>> same?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 8:45 AM, Mario Peshev <mario at peshev.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello reviewers,
>>>
>>> I think that an additional section in the Theme Review guidelines is
>>> missing and this is the 'I have downloaded a theme/framework, changed the
>>> style.css and images and resubmitted' section.
>>>
>>> I am inspecting ticket 4866 -
>>> http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4866 - where the theme is based
>>> on another existing theme (looking pretty much the same) and also built on a
>>> starter theme. The theme has no specific functionality - the overall
>>> functions.php file is like 15 lines of code. Also, text domain if toolbox
>>> everywhere which is undoubtedly incorrect for a unique theme submission but
>>> even more wrong where most of the code is copy-pasted.
>>>
>>> What is acceptable when submitting a theme which is almost entirely based
>>> on another theme and has no uniqueness? This is not a child theme here (even
>>> though a guide what is allowed for child themes is also a good idea) but an
>>> existing theme with few tens of lines of code modified and submitted back to
>>> the repo.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Mario Peshev
>>> freelance software developer/trainer
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/mpeshev
>>> http://peshev.net/blog
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
>
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