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

[Chip Bennett]

What you're asking for is nearly impossible to define objectively. It is
entirely a subjective assessment regarding the significance or degree of
difference in design and/or functionality.

As for what the GPL requires:

1) Retention of the original code copyright notice and license declaration
2) Explicit statement that the work is derivative

That's pretty much it.

Also note: outside of the License/License URI header tags, we don't enforce
"proper" (i.e. as recommended by GNU) GPL ownership/copyright attribution.
Since most Themes don't really handle this as recommended by GNU, it becomes
that much more difficult to enforce "proper" copyright attribution for
derivative works.

Chip

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 7:33 PM, Mario Peshev <mario at peshev.net> wrote:

> Hello Cais,
>
> I don't argue with the Theme Review team or the guidelines authors - it is
> just the third time I encounter a similar case and I thought it would be
> good to define what is a minor and what - a major and significant change (so
> to speak) so that it is clear that changing a tiny font/background element
> doesn't do a theme uniqueness.
>
> From my perspective the case with what's allowed as a startup material for
> a new theme and what needs to be attributed and where is unclear. It's
> completely OK if external sources are referenced for that purpose.
>
> All the best,
>
>
> Mario Peshev
> freelance software developer/trainer
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/mpeshev
> http://peshev.net/blog
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 3:13 AM, Edward Caissie <edward.caissie at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> 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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>
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