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Can I resell a "premium template" as my own? (with my own customization/edits)

by ItWasLuck3
3 replies
Hey all,

I'm a part of both the ElegantThemes and YooTheme members club, so I have access to quite a few very professional themes. I've made a number of custom templates (based off of those downloaded from those sites) over the years for various projects I've done. They are all extremely targeted to what I wanted to do with them, so I never had the slightest intention of selling/ giving away the template with my modifications to it.

But I've recently started a website design (based off a template from ElegantThemes) and my end goal is to sell it or just give it away... But I wanted to know if I have the right to do that?

I've done some research on it, and apparently the ElegantThemes themes are under the GNU Public License version 2.0. And I'm no lawyer or what not, but doesn't that entail me to modify if and resell it, assuming the changes are more than just subtle...? Well the ToS goes on to say this "You may not claim intellectual or exclusive ownership to any of our products, modified or unmodified." which contradicts the GNU license doesn't it?

Any help here would be great.
#customization or edits #premium template #resell
  • Profile picture of the author ussher
    send them an email.

    In the event that whatever we post here is wrong you can hardly say "but the guys on the warrior forum said it was ok......"

    If you send them a mail you will get the definitive answer.
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  • Profile picture of the author ItWasLuck3
    True, thanks for the suggestion. I'm just waiting for someone who's got that GNU public license memorized to start throwing facts everywhere
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  • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
    Originally Posted by ItWasLuck3 View Post


    I've done some research on it, and apparently the ElegantThemes themes are under the GNU Public License version 2.0. .
    According to the folks at ElegantThemes:

    The majority of the theme, and all files that interact with WordPress and jQuery, are GPL. (all .php and .js files). But our design work (images and css) are not.
    It's not that unusual for theme producers to not license their images or CSS (and sometimes javascript) under the GPL while their PHP code is.

    A developer's license, as mentioned in the above link, would probably allow you to distribute your themes in the way that you want to.

    Of course, you'd be within the bounds of the GPL if you only distribute the .php & .js files and create your own images and CSS (make sure the recipient is aware of what is GPL'd). But that could be an unnecessary pain when a developers license is $89.

    I'd do as ussher suggested and just send them an email. Ask them if a developers license would suit you.
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    :)

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