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Questions about paid wordpress themes we downloaded for free

by Jensha
19 replies
Okay, let's take elegant themes for example.

If you want to use elegant themes, you will have to buy them for $37 I think? And you get all the package.

But there are some generous IMers that are giving them away for free which is nice.

But if I use one to make a site, that who knows maybe a good site someday, what are the chances of the makers of the theme to discover I didn't pay for them because they we're just given to me?

I guess I want to know if will they come after me if I got their themes from someone else?

Anyone ever encountered this scenario before?
#downloaded #free #paid #questions #themes #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    You are fine with Elegant Themes

    They include the GNU Public License with their themes. Excluding the .PSD source files.

    Terms and Conditions | Elegant Themes
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Jensha View Post

      But there are some generous IMers that are giving them away for free which is nice.
      Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

      You are fine with Elegant Themes

      They include the GNU Public License with their themes. Excluding the .PSD source files.

      Terms and Conditions | Elegant Themes
      If you got the psd source files, those "generous IMers" are thieves.

      Would you think them so "nice" if you created a for-pay product and found "generous IMers" giving it away for free?
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      • Profile picture of the author JimmyD
        Ha ha, an interesting question. I think the likelihood of being "caught" is small but if your site becomes popular and successful you may even consider buying the theme?!
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    • Profile picture of the author R0CKY
      Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

      You are fine with Elegant Themes
      Huh?

      The OP is asking of it is okay to use Elegant Themes without paying for them, and your advise is that this is fine?

      It is not fine, it is theft.

      Also the OP should be made aware that many "downloaded" themes are infected with nasty malware.

      Back to Elegant Themes, the package pricing is extremely good value for money.
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      • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
        Originally Posted by R0CKY View Post

        It is not fine, it is theft.
        Not if released under GNU....
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        • Profile picture of the author R0CKY
          Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

          Not if released under GNU....
          I think you need to read the T&C that were linked to. ET are def. not for free distribution.
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        • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
          Originally Posted by wolfmmiii View Post

          Not if released under GNU....
          Wrong! GNU never meant to be free as in "free beer" - only free as in "free speech". Big difference!
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      • Profile picture of the author onSubie
        Originally Posted by R0CKY View Post

        The OP is asking of it is okay to use Elegant Themes without paying for them, and your advise is that this is fine?
        That's not what he said.

        He said if he was given the them by another IMer is that okay?

        According the the GNU License that comes with the theme, this is okay.

        Did you read the Elegant Theme license?

        1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

        You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

        Edit: A Torrent site and a file share site would probably fall under "any medium"
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        • Profile picture of the author Jensha
          Hello.

          Thank you all for giving your insights, I appreciate it.

          I've read the terms and conditions and I've seen about the General Public License. It seems it is okay for you to distribute it if you are the original buyer. And to make sure I've contacted them about it out of curiosity. But I've decided to just pay for the theme anyway, it's for$49. (Ouch, unlike Elegant that are for $40 for all the themes already.)

          The theme I'm talking about is Foxy theme by Organized theme.

          They also have a GPL.

          The thing is, I'm going to design a website for a friend of mine as a part time work for now. It shouldn't be too hard if we use a theme because that will solve most problems of the designs and we both agreed about it.

          Origally, I was thinking of downloading those Foxy themes that are being shared for free, but I don't know if they have the rights to do so (meaning they bought it which makes it okay for them to distribute it because of the GPL) or they got it through unethical means (which might compromise the website with the same theme I'm gonna make for my friend and of course the blames on me if that happens because he's gonna use it to promote their online business). If only I can know if those people sharing the themes on torrents have a GPL for it them I would use it to save some costs but I'd rather play safe with this one since the site's not going to be mine.

          Thanks onSubie for looking on it too by the way.

          Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

          That's not what he said.

          He said if he was given the them by another IMer is that okay?

          According the the GNU License that comes with the theme, this is okay.

          Did you read the Elegant Theme license?

          1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

          You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

          Edit: A Torrent site and a file share site would probably fall under "any medium"
          As for the terms and conditions on Foxy themes, they give GPL too and here it is and I quote:

          "WordPress is open source software and my themes carry the same license as WordPress -- the GNU General Public License. Once you purchase a theme or themes you can use them on as many sites as you'd like-yourself, clients, and so on. You can also modify them in any you need to suit your purposes. If you have any questions regarding the license of these themes, please contact me and I will be glad to help you."

          Thus I contacted them, no reply yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author mobiussilver
    Beware of "Generous IMers" that share premium theme for free, sometimes they put some code on it... For me it better spent $37 just for being safe
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  • Profile picture of the author lordspace
    I recommend paying for the themes because it is great to support the developer/designer for the work they've done.

    Second reason is that those *generous* people could put some encrypted/obfuscated code that can act like a Trojan horse and your site can get compromised.

    Third, I am a developer myself and I've created about 15 WordPress plugins.
    10-11 are free others are premium ones (2-3 are about to be published on my site).
    In total for all of the free plugins and for a period of 2 years I probably have gotten about $200 in donations. It is not possible to have a business with kind of income... therefore I had to take on some projects to pay the bills ... which made me update the plugins once every 3-4 months.

    For the premium plugins I able to focus on quicker support replies (via forums) and more frequent updates.
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  • Profile picture of the author mstrmindmktg
    WooThemes is the same as Elegant Themes. They can be used under the GNU license. So if someone gives you the files (psd aren't available) for a theme, you are ok. The only thing is you won't get the support from the theme company because you aren't the original buyer.
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Originally Posted by Jensha View Post

    But there are some generous IMers that are giving them away for free which is nice.
    "generous IMers" code for found it on torrent / BH site :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author abbe77
    If you got any problem like if this FREE theme will become incopmatible with some future version of wordpress, your site will be at risk as you will be unable to get any support. Also most of the premium theme sites attached a license key or sometimes you have to enter the site link on their website to activate the license. Lets say one time that IMER entered your site under that license but later if you got any license issue or license expire then you can be in a big trouble if your site got popularity.
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    • Profile picture of the author Martin Luxton
      Jensha,

      If you want peace of mind get your themes, photos etc from the original source so you have a receipt.

      Maybe your IMers had a Developers' Licence so they were able to legally build your site. I suggest you ask them.

      Martin
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    I'd be careful of any paid content that's been freely shared. Aside from the fact that it's usually been modified in some way, embedding back doors, ad code, or disabling updates, people put a lot of work into creating WP themes. Are people that hard up that paying someone $37 for essentially designing their entire site for them is a problem?

    Glad you decided to pay, I hope others follow your lead.
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    Ron Rule
    http://ronrule.com

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