As you maybe know, Iām working on free WP theme these days. When it was finally ready the only problem left is license. I have licensed the free theme and itās premium version as GPL but for reviewer on wordpress. org problem is that I have Themeforest themes not licensed as GPL.
I asked on wp Slack would that help if I remove links to Themeforest from my homepage website but didnāt get answer at the end. They just repeat that all themes I sell must be GPL compatible.
What is your opinion about licenses, especially if there are theme authors?
I will share my free WP theme here if it is not problem. The only reason version 1.0.2 is not on wordpress. org now is because of licensing. https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/268128
Not sure what to advise you I have the same issue with most plugins for one of them I had to create a free version and give it a new nameā¦ it sucksā¦
Well, I did not face this issue yet, as I did not submit themes to wordpress.org yet, but I assume that their issue is with what you promote around the theme you submit. If your site clearly links to non-GPL ThemeForest stuff, it seems that they will not like it.
Easiest way through is to keep everything tied to your wp.org theme 100% GPL and avoid any visible connection to non-GPL products. Especially until you get approved.
Let me know how this goes, if they approve you. If you get no response from them, just resubmit and wait, I guess.
I added notice for license on my website how they recommend, theme has no issues anymore but after my last update I didnāt get answer for two days. So I asked on Slack and they said, they are volunteers, donāt have time and canāt speed review for a specific ticket.
Reviewers are the worst they can beā¦ if I show you my latest email with the chages that I have to do ghishhh, tooke me an entire day just to read itā¦
Latest reviewer comment, another reviewer: āYour themes on the themeforest marketplace is still not GPL compatible, so we are not able to approve your theme.ā
How they know for my TF account? Because it was on my website homepage before. I removed it, changed GPL for pro version of theme to compatible and now that is all what they can find as āproblemā, info about my TF account.
What can I do? Some say to open new account I think it is too late for that now and I donāt plan to change free and pro themes that much. Also I want to be transparent, not risk anything. To ask them to change wordpress org account name? It is the same brand name as TF account. Have no idea.
Not sure what to say, is funny because most plugins and themes approved on WordPress have a PRO version somewhereā¦
My question is why canāt you ghange the license to GPL? Also I am surprised Envato approved the themes withotu a GPL licenes since this is a WordPress requirement?
Iām surprised with your question. Envato has named their licenses āsplit licenseā because they combine GPL and design part protection. PHP and integrated HTML is GPL and design (custom css, custom js and visual design) are licensed separately as copyright. Very normal and GPL compatible license.
Other option is 100% GPL which would mean anyone can take all product and sell it elsewhere legally. That is partially discouraged if you have own store and licensing by subscription or similar. On TF no such thing.
All my plugins, along with the one theme I have, are GPL, and Iāve never had issues before. With my latest upload to WordPress, I had to rename āUltimate Video Playerā to āFWD Video Playerā and remove a few PRO features. Apparently, I wasnāt allowed to include sections in the plugin that say āUpgrade to PRO for this feature,ā which honestly sucks. For some of my other plugins, that was allowed, so I guess it depends on the reviewer at WordPress as well.
The review process for this plugin was brutal. Itās a huge plugin with many external features, and I had 12 rejections on it. Now I only have one more issue to solve before itās finally approved, but it definitely wasnāt easy, is their job to make the plugins and theme safe but sometimes the reviwers are just dumbā¦
Also, the reviewers are more data-driven than creative developers, so they donāt really understand many of the interactive features I had built into the plugin. I had to remove several things simply because they didnāt get the purpose of them.
I donāt know how to help you about your issue other than follow the rules and go GPL, also try AI is kinda good at giving advice about such things.
Let me give you my story with the GPL licenseā¦ a couple of years ago, my most successful plugin (Newsomatic) was copied in multiple instances, renamed and republished to marketplaces like JVZoo or WarriorPlus (where you publish a product, dozens or even hundreds of affiliates send massive email campaigns to people - sellers get thousands of sales in 1-2 weeks - and the affiliate gets 50% commission, then abandon the product - they do this on repeat).
I found out about this, because my customers asked me: hey, is that you selling the plugin over there, on X Y platform?..
Some of the videos I published back then, 2 similar instances:
Another issue is that our code is published on platforms like Babiato, Festingerās Vault, and even Black Hat World, in nulled versions. But this is the smaller issue, the larger issue is the one from above, where people rename your work and resell it.
The idea of GPL is great, however, there is also a downside to it, especially if you want to build a business around it.
I was searching Envato accounts and I didnāt find more than one account that is 100% GPL although they all are GPL. Not even account for plugins, not to mention themes.
So I wonder where are all those authors from wordpress org, seems like not on Envato.
I didnāt have time to watch video now. I guess you were able to do something about resell of your plugin?
About wordpress I guess the problem could be name of my wp account is the same as the rest of the brand so it is direct connection but not sure if that can be changed.
In my case, I created Ultimate Video Player in 2014, and these guys later used a very similar name, renaming their product to āThe Ultimate Video Playerāā¦ blah blah blah. There are also other āinspiredā features from my player included in their product. Itās not a 100% copy, but because of this, I could no longer upload the player to WordPress.org using the original name. I had to rename it to FWD Video Player insteadā¦
