Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

WordPress How to Make a Website with WordPress Customizing WordPress Themes Customizing WordPress Theme Files

Posted by Adina Ciobanescu
Adina Ciobanescu
4,693 Points

Does removing the name of the original creator of the parent theme count as copyright infringement?

I was wondering who owns the copyright to a theme and what happens when you customize the css and make it your own. For example, let's say I am using a free theme from the wordpress.org repository and in the footer there is the name of the original creator and a link to their website. Does that mean they have the copyright for that theme? Am I allowed to remove their name or claim it my own after modifying it? Note that I don't intend to sell it

3 Answers

Sue Dough
Sue Dough
35,800 Points
Sue Dough
Sue Dough
35,800 Points

Yes you can do that and you can sell it. Only caveot is you have to keep it GPL. That is the beauty of GPL. That links mean nothing! 0 , nada, nothing!

 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Some of the most popular WordPress plugins have been forked. It is normal.

Adina Ciobanescu
Adina Ciobanescu
4,693 Points

Thank you for answer!

Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,413 Points
Seth Kroger
Seth Kroger
56,413 Points

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this should not be taken an professional legal advice.

Yes, by simply creating something, the author has a copyright on their work. Altering that creates what's known as a derivative work and doing that can run afoul of copyright law if you don't have the rightsholder's permission.

If it's a "free" theme from wordpress.org, is it under an open source license of any kind? That kind of license gives you permission to alter the theme to suit your needs but virtually all of them require you keep the original authorship and copyright notices. (In code. If it's displayed on pages, it's likely OK to remove depending on the license terms.)

Adina Ciobanescu
Adina Ciobanescu
4,693 Points

Thanks for answering!

Vu Nguyen Thai
Vu Nguyen Thai
5,697 Points
Vu Nguyen Thai
Vu Nguyen Thai
5,697 Points

I'm not really sure about ownership of theme, but i think if you want to modifying it and remove their copyright, you should email and ask for their permission. If they are agree then it's okay.

Adina Ciobanescu
Adina Ciobanescu
4,693 Points

Thank you for the reply!