GNU LICENSE QUESTION!!!

Posted by jigggaxp on March 4, 2009 at 6:57am

I recently got into drupal and dont really understand how these free themes work (in the themes section of drupal)
Can I use the theme on my website and erase their "designed by ****** name on the bottom of the footer? or do i have to give them credit for using their free themes?

Secondly, if i modify their layout so much that it looks completely different do i still have to credit their names anywhere?

Comments

Remove it

Posted by Keyz on March 4, 2009 at 7:27am

No GPL theme (which they have to be in order to be listed on Drupal.org) is allowed to force you to retain any visible copyright or credits/information. You can modify the theme in any way you want and feel free to remove any visible links, credits, or copyright notices.

-- David
davidnewkerk.com | absolutecross.com
View my Drupal lessons & guides

re:question

Posted by jigggaxp on March 4, 2009 at 8:04am

I looked in the theme folder and the designer wrote that in a text file:

This template is released under the Creative Commons Attributions 2.5 license, which
basically means you can do whatever you want with it provided you credit the author.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

..
does this mean i have to credit the designer?, the theme was found on drupal.org though..

---

Posted by farald on March 4, 2009 at 8:11am

You should submit a support request to the theme's issue queue and let maintainer know about the licence conflict :)

It shouldn't have been made

Posted by Keyz on March 4, 2009 at 8:25am

It shouldn't have been made available on drupal.org. In any case with that license yes you do have to credit them (though it should also be removed from drupal.org unless the license can be changed).
Perhaps you could alternately write to the theme's original creator and see if they would switch to GPL. I don't see why anyone wouldn't for something like this... I mean you get your theme published on the sites of all the top CMSes (all of the best open source CMSes are GPL... I don't know if the others are as strict though as drupal.org about adhering to the license).
Which theme is it by the way?

-- David
davidnewkerk.com | absolutecross.com
View my Drupal lessons & guides

its the terrafirma_theme

Posted by jigggaxp on March 4, 2009 at 8:27am

its the terrafirma_theme

Issued opened

Posted by skwashd on March 8, 2009 at 10:14am

It does appear that it is GPL, but the maintainer just needs to sort out the docs. See http://drupal.org/node/395090 for the issue.

Dave Hall Consulting -
Open Source Business Solutions