All posts filed under: Creative Commons

Discouraging public redistribution of commercial themes and plugins – poll results

Published by Richard Best

Background Back on 4 August of this year, I published a post called Theme and plugin shops – Discouraging public redistribution – User poll.  The poll that was included in the post sought people’s views on the reselling of commercial themes and plugins. It did this because people’s views on this issue are relevant to the inclusion of a contractual mechanism I’d proposed for theme/plugin shop terms of use. The contractual mechanism I’d proposed would seek to discourage purchasers of a commercial theme or plugin from making the theme or plugin available on a website for download by others (whether for free or a charge), even when the theme or plugin is 100% GPL-licensed. The proposed term would say that, if a customer decides to make your commercial theme or plugin available on a website for download by others, you may exercise a right to deactivate their access keys (if that’s how you’ve set things up) and to terminate their access to support and updates. I explained why, in my view, this sort of clause …

Step-by-step guide to attributing Creative Commons-licensed images

Published by Richard Best

BobWP reader seeks step-by-step guide A while back I wrote a piece that first appeared on BobWP called Using Creative Commons images on your site with confidence (I republished it here too). Recently a reader of BobWP asked a question about the detailed mechanics of finding a Creative Commons-licensed image and applying an attribution statement to one’s use of it. He was trying to use images found through Google image and Flickr searches but wasn’t sure exactly how to go about attributing the image and was looking for a step-by-step guide. In response, I wrote a brief step-by-step guide in the comments on Bob’s site. Because that guide might come in useful for others, I thought I’d post it here on WP and Legal Stuff too. Key steps 1. Search an image repository that has Creative Commons-licensed images Find an image and ensure it is licensed under a Creative Commons licence. Flickr is a good source and I’ll use that as an example from now on. Do an initial search for the topic or subject …

Using Creative Commons licensed images on your site with confidence

Published by Richard Best

Introduction As many readers will know, when sourcing images for your blog or website, you can’t just do a Google images search, find an image you like, copy it and insert it in your post editor. Well, you can, physically, but legally this is a recipe for copyright infringement. If you don’t have your own images, two common alternatives are to: purchase a licence to images from the likes of iStock, Shutterstock and Bigstock; or find and use images that have been either licensed under a Creative Commons licence or released into the public domain under CC0 (pronounced CC zero). In this post, I’m going to focus on the latter: Creative Commons. Whilst some people are familiar with Creative Commons licensing, many people are not, particularly if they’ve had no need to use Creative Commons-licensed material in the past or to release material under a Creative Commons licence. For this reason, I’m going to: introduce Creative Commons and its licences; and explain how to comply with the attribution requirements that are common to all of …

Taking care with the IP terms of WordPress development services

Published by Richard Best

Setting the scene Does this sound like you? You need to have a custom theme or plugin developed. Or you need help modifying an existing theme or plugin. You need someone to build a WordPress platform of some sort. Or you otherwise need help doing X, Y or Z with your WordPress site or business that, like the other tasks just mentioned, will involve the creation of new software code. You need the work done yesterday, you’re happy to pay a reasonable amount for it and you just want to get on with it. I’ve been in this kind of situation a few times and I’m sure there are thousands out there that either have been too or are in it right now. Rather than going to a known developer (you might not know any), you might turn to one of the WordPress-specific job shops such as codeable or WerkPress or similar services for which WordPress is clearly an important category, such as Elto (formerly Tweaky) or Envato Studio. In your hurry, you may tick …

A reader asks: Theme reviews, CC0, model releases and GPL-compatibility

Published by Richard Best

Question Ulrich asks: “I do theme reviews for the theme repository on WordPress.org. All the code and assets in the theme need to be GPL compatible. I have a few questions about how GPL compatible images work with model releases. The popular GPL compatible image licence is CC0. Can an image be released under CC0 even if there is no model release? Is a CC0 image without a model release GPL compatible? Who is responsible for getting the model release? The photographer, theme author, website owner? Who is liable if a theme with a CC0 image without a model release is used on a pornographic site?” Thanks for the great bunch of questions Ulrich. I appreciate receiving them. Outline and summary Outline Before I jump into the specific questions you’ve raised, I think it may be helpful for some people if we step back from those questions and: sketch out what WordPress.org and the Theme Review Handbook have to say about GPL-compatibility; describe CC0; analyse what is meant by “GPL-compatibility”; and explain why, in my …

Automattic, open licensing and open data

Published by Richard Best

The open spirit of WordPress Everyone knows that the founders of and contributors to the WordPress software at WordPress.org wholeheartedly embrace the spirit of open source software. The GPL (the open source licence under which WordPress is licensed) sits at the centre of what they do and Matt Mullenweg, for example, speaks passionately about the GPL and champions the cause it represents (and those that defy the GPL’s requirements (or spirit) when the community thinks it applies (or should be applied) may, well, be frowned upon). Here’s an example of Matt speaking about the GPL: From software to other creative content Whilst copyleft has its origins in the software world, the open source software movement is now a subset of the larger world of open licensing and open data. Various licences and tools exist to enable people to share not only their software but also their creative content and other data on standardised terms that are quick and easy to put in place. Automattic’s generosity Not surprisingly given its founders, Automattic has always contributed back …