[theme-reviewers] GPL-Compatibility

Bryan Hadaway bhadaway at gmail.com
Thu Jun 5 10:49:09 UTC 2014


Unfortunately, that's always a possibility and it absolutely happens.

Someone might rip off someone else's work or otherwise infringe and upload
or re-release something under their claim of ownership or a new license,
then anyone else that uses that work or even promotes it, shares it with
others, ends up inadvertently and ignorantly violating the original owner's
rights.

All we can do is navigate the sometimes tricky world of trademark and
copyright law and respect other's rights as much as we can, with the
information we have, be kind to one another, in other words, be mature
adults and just use our common sense.

Then, if one day you get a legitimate cease and desist email (which
sometimes is just as unfortunate for the person that has to send out such
notices in the first place as it is for you to receive them), there's no
reason to be scared or get defensive, you should simply apologize, let them
know that you had no idea you were violating their rights and work to
quickly and amicably resolve the issue. I'd say 9/10 times, that's all
there is to it.

Unfortunately, some people/companies might, on rare occasion, try to seek
monetary damages or to censor others whether you knew you were doing
anything wrong or not. That's partly what http://www.chillingeffects.org/
is about covering.

It's kind of a hope for the best, prepare for the worst type situation. You
can hope that everyone always does the right thing, but prepare for the
fact that they most inevitably won't.
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