Come together with the global Drupal community in Rotterdam, 28 Sept – 1 Oct 2026. Sessions, contribution, connection, and Early Bird savings until 8 June.Can you please clarify whether you have obtained pemission to release this port under the GPL ?
I am concerned that this port does not have a GPL-compatible license, required to release it on drupal.org
The Design Disease release announcement states that modifications of the Fervens Wordpress theme cannot be distributed without prior permission:
You can use the theme for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. However, it’s forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without both designer’s and Smashing Magazine’s permission — please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask for a permission first.
To confuse matters, the Smashing Magazine release announcement declares the Fervens Wordpress theme to be under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. This does count as permission for modifications (derivative works) to be released; however the Creative Commons license is not compatible with the GPL required for the Drupal CVS repository.
I welcome your valuable contribution in porting Fervens to Drupal, but we need to take care not to infringe upon copyrights, which could get drupal.org into trouble.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| #5 | Smashing Magazine email | 50.32 KB | ktleow |
| #1 | Capture.PNG | 25.43 KB | ktleow |
Comments
Comment #1
ktleow commentedI've obtained both permission from the original author and SM for all the themes I had ported WP > Drupal.
Attached here is the screenshot of the email I sent to DD with reply.
Hope that answers your question.
Edit: The theme's footer contain links back to DD and SM with "I love SM" icon.
Comment #2
andrewmacpherson commentedThank you for clarifying this. I'm satisfied that it can be released on drupal.org
Sorry for calling this into question, but it's worth being sure.
Thanks for your porting efforts!
Comment #3
ktleow commentedNo probs ;)
I should have stated that I've obtained permissions in the theme page.
I'm busy at the moment. Will be back fixing issues and porting more themes in the next few weeks!
Comment #4
Jeff Burnz commentedThis theme is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License from Smashing Magazine - nowhere in that email does it state you have permission to re-licence this work to GPL, and you did not follow up DD's request to obtain permission from SM.
I posted an issue withe the d.o webmasters regarding this theme: #814022: Fervens theme has Creative Commons files in CVS
Comment #5
ktleow commentedHi Jeff,
Yes I had already obtained permission from both SM and DD.
Refer comment #1 for DD email.
And attached here is the email from SM.
Comment #6
Jeff Burnz commentedHi ktleow, while you may have permission to port the themes, it does not state the themes can be re-licensed under GPL, a subtle but very important difference. Free does not = GPL. In fact, by stating you will keep the attribution (while nothing wrong with this in itself, credit given where credit due) it does rather read like you are stating you will uphold the current terms of use, i.e. the Creative Commons license (attribution-share alike).
I think these themes are great and a good contribution, however as it stands they very much look like they could be in violation of the GPL rules Drupal.org enforces. That is what needs to be clarified here.
Comment #7
ktleow commentedThanks for pointing this out.
I have sent yet another email to SM to clarify on this issue. Hope they'll reply soon.
Comment #8
ktleow commentedUpdate:
http://drupal.org/node/814022#comment-3049654
Comment #9
scott m. sanders commentedSubscribe :)
Comment #10
ktleow commentedTheme has been removed from Drupal.org
Download and receive updates from http://kahthong.com/node/17