Should I release this Wordpress theme?
My quest to design ten blogs in five days is coming to an end. And with it, comes a premium Wordpress theme licensing dilemna that I would like to share with you. As before when I spoke about the collision between open source ethics and premium Wordpress themes I find myself torn between different interpretations of a what can and can’t be done with a premium theme.
Before I go any further, here is a screen shot of the theme in question.
The Wordpress blog you are looking at in the picture was designed by me for my good friend and fellow trumpet player, Matt Roberts. Matt used to be a pupil of mine. I’m proud to say that he studied with me since the age of eleven, winning several awards, gaining access to one of the most prestigious Music Conservatoires in the country a little over four years ago. Since leaving the Conservatoire he has pushed forward with his career and continues to make me proud. Last october I suggested that he start blogging. He took my advice and has never looked back.
He got a great deal on hosting, including a free domain name, using the UPSTARTBLOGGER 3 months free coupon code and using a modified version of the Modicus theme he soon gained an audience and both benefitted from and enjoyed his blog. A year later, the time had come for a refresh and a redesign so I offered to help.
Having seen what happens when my Moleskine Wordpress theme is crossed with Chris Pearson’s Thesis theme, I decided to stump up the cash and purchase a developers license from DIY Themes. The license made it clear that I could use the theme on as many blogs as I liked and that the attribution link could be removed or changed.
I edited the theme heavily. Added a header, changed the typography so that the fonts, their size and spacing, were all brought into line with what is fast becoming the Upstart Blogger in house style. Link styles were also brought in line with the current Upstart Blogger design. The three column layout was jettisoned and replaced with a two column grid. This gives the layout more room to breath and makes the insertion of adverts much easier.
The photography was all done in house. Literally in fact, in my house, in my downstairs living room to be precise. The header design is a combination of the wonderfully European Farao typeface from the equally wonderfully European Storm Type. A few photoshop hours later the header image began to take shape, a few more hours later, the blog was up and running, complete with a few relevant advertisements to help Matt survive the harsh financial realities of life in the Metropolis.
Sure, there are still visible clues that give away the themes roots, but as I hope you agree, the design is quite different.
I then designed a further four header images for use with the theme so that I could repeat the installation across four other domains. The license made it clear that I could use it across as many domains as I liked. This raises a question in my mind. If I can make blogs for as many people as I like, for free if I choose to do so, then what is the difference between that and simply releasing my modification for free?
At this stage I’m still firmly in devil’s advocate mode, provoking an argument, hoping to spark debate.
Furthermore, since my design is now sitting happily on a blog owned by someone else, with no usage restrictions placed upon them by me, what is to stop them from releasing the modified theme if they choose to carry out further modifications?
How much modification does a preimum Wordpress theme have to undergo before it is ethical to release it, for free, as a new standalone theme? And, with that in mind, how long before premium Wordpress themes become a thing of the past, with more and more people choosing to modify and customize rather than pay?
Can I release my current modified Depo-Skinny theme as a standalone theme? ;)
ha good question,
i guess it is depend on the relations with the credit holder,
as we saw it so many times with the “hemmingway” theme and all the themes build on hemmingway.
In case of good relation everybody is happy thetheme is source of inspiration and credits can be shared some way.
I struggled with the same question a while back, but in the end I decided that since WordPress is free, so should my themes be. I make a good living consulting and most of that work has come from the fact that WordPress is totally free, somehow I feel a little dirty charging people to download my themes etc.
Yes you should release it. With the exception of the brackets around the comments it’s totally different to the Thesis theme. I don’t see what the problem would be, especially since you coughed up the moolah for the developer license.
Just release it, you know you want to and we know we want it so what’s the problem dude, just let us have it already. You paid for the developer version, you developed it, now release it!
You’ve modified Thesis a lot. You’ve bought the developers’ licence, which allows you to do whatever you like with it. I don’t see what’s so risqué about it all. It seems like a perfectly ethical suggestion. Go for it.
Yes, you should.
Your mod does’nt look like Thesis. In fact, it looks like the current theme at upstartblogger or moleskine (would you release the current theme, october?)
But, anyway, why don’t you ask DIY staff?
Good musicians borrow, great musician steal eh?
If only there were a magical formula of old theme + x hours = new theme. lol. I don’t think there is a theme developer out there (premium or not) who hasn’t borrowed heavily from a previous theme…or from some form of previous HTML layout….that’s why blog themes and styles (and web design in general) evolve from the earliest simple layouts through to more sophisticated magazine layouts we have now.
You could turn your question around and ask whether premium theme developers should be required to pay royalties to the themes, designs and inspirations they originally hacked up to create their “premium” layouts.
You know what would be really clever? Let someone else release it, then you get the publicity and they take any of the flak if it all hits the fan.
Great post.
Man, with Revolution going open source it really brings these questions to the table. To be honest, I’m torn between them. I think purchasing a developers licence for a theme that works for “you” is smart.. not only does it make building your own projects easier if you have a good grasp on that theme, but it also stimulates the “themes” economy allowing these great designers to keep doing what they do.
On the flip side, releasing an awesome premium theme open source/for free can also stimulate the designers wallet in the forms of traffic to their site, and giving them an opportunity to turn that traffic into sales and clicks via other revenue streams…
I was wondering, would you ever release UB October, the current theme?