[theme-reviewers] Commercial, Themeforest and WordPress.Org

[Chip Bennett]

Yes and no. Like I said: it's not something that we investigate with any
special diligence. But it's not about the linkage. If we know about it,
simply removing the link doesn't resolve the issue.

Say Joe Developer sells Themes on TF under the Regular License. Joe
Developer then submits a Theme to WPORG, and his ThemeURI has a banner ad
for his TF offerings. The reviewer notes the licensing issue with the
TF-offered Themes. Joe Developer then simply removing the TF link from the
ThemeURI page wouldn't allow the Theme to be approved for WPORG. Joe
Developer would have to re-license his TF-offered WordPress Themes as 100%
GPL.

So, the TL:DR:

1) It's a matter of WORG policy regarding licensing
2) If we know about it, we have to act accordingly
3) While I fully support the WPORG policy, I think Theme Reviewers have far
more important and value-added things to do than dig several degrees of
separation for licensing issues; so,
4) We're not going to look for it any more diligently than any other
licensing issue, so if someone actively tries to segregate TF offerings
from WPORG offerings, it's very likely we won't notice it.


On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Japheth Thomson <japh at envato.com> wrote:

> Ah, I think I'm with you now:
>
> So two completely separate themes, one on WP.org and one on TF.net, that
> don't link to each other in any way = fine.
>
> Linking to TF.net somehow via a WP.org theme = not fine.
>
> Right?
>
> Cheers,
> Japh
>
>
>
> On 29 July 2013 05:46, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi Japh,
>>
>> Yes, for as long as I can remember. To be honest, it's not something that
>> we spent a lot of time investigating, but before Envato introduced the 100%
>> GPL license option, if someone advertised their ThemeForest-hosted Themes
>> or Plugins from ThemeURI or AuthorURI, we would have to "not-approve" the
>> Theme, as a matter of WPORG policy.
>>
>> (That's why I was one of the biggest fans of the move to offer a 100% GPL
>> license, so that the issue could go away.)
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Japheth Thomson <japh at envato.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Chip,
>>>
>>> Did I read you correctly there? Are you saying that if someone is
>>> selling themes or plugins on ThemeForest or CodeCanyon, they must use the
>>> 100% GPL license, otherwise they are not allowed to also distribute other
>>> themes on WordPress.org?
>>>
>>> Has that been the rule for long?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Japh
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 29 July 2013 05:33, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> If you host on wordpress.org, any Themes or Plugins that you sell on
>>>> ThemeForest must be distributed under the ThemeForest 100% GPL license.
>>>> Other than that, the usual commercial/up-sell Theme guidelines apply.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 2:08 PM, Ünsal Korkmaz <unsalkorkmaz at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>> I am preparing to release my first commercial child theme that using
>>>>> FirmaSite <http://wordpress.org/themes/firmasite> as parent theme.
>>>>> FirmaSite theme's support & information site is
>>>>> http://theme.firmasite.com
>>>>> I will put commercial child theme to ThemeForest as gpl theme. My
>>>>> questions are;
>>>>>
>>>>>    - Is there any restriction on this?
>>>>>    - Can i put a page on http://theme.firmasite.com about this
>>>>>    commercial child-theme?
>>>>>    - Can i put link to ThemeForest in commercial child-theme's page?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ( Sorry if its unrelated to this mail list )
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Japh Thomson
>>> WordPress Evangelist
>>> http://wp.envato.com
>>> http://twitter.com/envato
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Japh Thomson
> WordPress Evangelist
> http://wp.envato.com
> http://twitter.com/envato
>
>
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>
>
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