WordPress supports copyright violations and theft

[MiroslavGlavic]

Yes or No?

Go search for TWITTER or FACEBOOK on http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or on the admin panel on your site

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/retweet this is the first one for twitter

Now for facebook look alikes

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/smells-like-facebook
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/facebookwb

Smeels like facebook's first line on it's description: The exact Facebook clone theme for Wordpress.

I made the title like it is for a reason............comments?

I will never use a theme, plugin or any services from: sunsivan, Nazieb and iayman

Sunsivan's Author URL is a site in India, has 2 themes

Nazieb's Author URL is a .com but after looking for a minute or two he is from Indonesia. His domain is a complete clone of facebook, has 1 theme

iayman's profile says no themes but the search said he made facebookwb, his domain is a wp<something>.com

both Nazieb and iayam run WordPress services according to their websites...interesting.

iayman's domain is registered in Egypt.

I AM NOT SAYING ANYTHING BAD ABOUT INDIA/INDONESIA/EGYPT OR IT'S PEOPLE.

These people basically took someone's look, I am sure without permission, and had their themes uploaded to WP's extend.

I don't know how the whole process works exactly, I am sure the steps are:

1. Create a theme
2. a lot of somethings that I don't know
3. voila it's up on WP's extend

I am sure part of #2, an actual human being looks at the themes and tests it right?

So what happened on these situations? I got noticed on these themes I think via weblogtoolscollections (I never get their name right)'s theme selection posts.

Someone care to explain please? I am sure Jeff would be pissed if I copied WPTavern's look without asking him. At least they didn't copy Microsoft's look? (who'd want their site to look like Microsoft anyways but that's another thread ).

I could call them weasels, thieves, <censored>, <censored>, <censored>,and so forth but I won't.

If you were twitter or facebook, what would YOU do?

Is there a way to report those themes? I only looked at the first page of search results for each term by the way.

Someone at WP's extend stepped in doo doo when they let these three themes inside.

[Otto]

Considering how often FB changes their look, it's not like any theme could keep up with it anyway. :P

[MiroslavGlavic]

Considering how often FB changes their look, it's not like any theme could keep up with it anyway. :P

I hate the new facebook change that started a few days ago.

Anyways back to topic: I am sure other sites are copied and on WP's extend area.

[conorp]

I AM NOT SAYING ANYTHING BAD ABOUT INDIA/INDONESIA/EGYPT OR IT'S PEOPLE.

It is not relevant at all where those people are located.

Plus it would be really easy to rip of Jeffs design, its based on a free theme

[Omar]

If you hate these themes so much why look them up, let twitter or facebook fight there battles if they decide to.. its not like there making you download it and use it...


gota love seeing someone always trying to provoke discussions this way lol

[Ryan]

If you hate these themes so much why look them up, let twitter or facebook fight there battles if they decide to.. its not like there making you download it and use it...

That's not really the point here. I think the point being made is that WordPress.org seems to be approving these themes which clearly are in breach of copyright.

[andrea_r]

this came up with a Twitter ones, which grabs the blog look directly from Twitter's API. Kinda negates the whole copyright thing.

[Jeffro]

You might be interested in the following discussions:

http://www.wptavern.com/clone-themes-are-bad-mmmkay
http://www.themelab.com/2010/01/31/w...mes-your-take/
Themes that Mimic Copyrighted Design

I'm guessing nothing will done until the copyright holders actually make a stand and enforce their copyright. Until then, let them play with fire.

As an aside, I think one of the guidelines on the theme repository should state that the design should not mimic or be identical to a copyrighted design. But then, this would be subjective and may lead to more trouble.

[chipbennett]

You might be interested in the following discussions:

http://www.wptavern.com/clone-themes-are-bad-mmmkay
http://www.themelab.com/2010/01/31/w...mes-your-take/
Themes that Mimic Copyrighted Design

I'm guessing nothing will done until the copyright holders actually make a stand and enforce their copyright. Until then, let them play with fire.

As an aside, I think one of the guidelines on the theme repository should state that the design should not mimic or be identical to a copyrighted design. But then, this would be subjective and may lead to more trouble.

I think that might expose WordPress to greater legal liability, because they are implying that they review and approve theme content with respect to copyright/trademark violations. (In much the same way that fraternities don't take car keys from people when they show up to their parties - because in so doing they would assume responsibility for the sobriety of the driver when they give them back their keys as they leave.)

IMHO (IANAL), their best approach is to claim that theme authors are responsible for repository-hosted themes (much like web hosts claim no responsibility for the content of their users), and to enforce DMCA takedown notices as they are received.

[Jeffro]

Makes sense to me.