Is it legal to sell modified themes?

[Devampre]

I think I understand what you mean.

Technically I believe you could do something like this if you modified enough of it. Obviously I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice. However, if you are simply using the fundamental syntax and structure of the html, css, js, other libraries/frameworks, etc... That should be okay.

But, for all the extra hassle of modifying it down to the bare bones, removing comments and the concern of potentially getting into legal trouble. I think it's best to just simply buy the theme each time.

Work it into your pricing. I mean, an extra $15 or so from your client likely shouldn't be an issue.

I will say though, it likely is completely okay to have a spare copy of the theme to look over. This way you can look at how they built certain elements and maybe learn some new things that you can apply to other projects. Maybe they made an awesome navbar without using bootstrap and you wanna see how they did it. And by looking at how they did it and learning to make that yourself; you can now apply that kind of navbar in a completely different project.

 

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[S.Y.]

This guy will not go far.

Who wanna bet?

The whole idea of this forum is to focus on providing value to the others and to hold others to a certain standard.

If you expected to not being called out for such tactics...

I wonder what opportunities you are mission because of how you approach things.

Oh well. Good luck mate!

 

[Shoshin]

If you're savvy enough to steal from a theme you can use the same amount of time you're using debating the issue here to quickly code something responsive and good looking using Bootstrap or Tachyons CSS and, as mentioned, many free themes.

Still, refusing to pay $15 is just ridiculous.

I'm actually a designer (UX designer with coding experience) who started my career freelancing 10 years ago with webdesign.

With all that baggage, I find outrageous when people call "webdesign" the act of buying themes to "overcharge" their clients. The designer in me is disgusted with the commoditization of these assets, and overall lack of quality that this will eventually bring.

However, the logical business person in me knows that Fox is correct: what matters is the value and results generated for the client, not how many hours of custom coding and designing were put there.

Therefore, trying to justify not paying the $15 is even more ridiculous than previously thought.

 

[awd]

If you know it breaches the terms, then do the right things and pay for each re-use. Someone put works to build those themes, respect that.

"The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching"

I would not risk my reputation for that.

Exactly this. I'm new to this forum though and was unsure if this was something that was promoted here. Theft, I mean. I didn't think so, but wasn't sure.

 

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[awd]

I know it breaches the terms but what I wanna know is how will Themeforest know it's the theme that I actually purchased.

Basically, I will be changing pretty much everything about the theme and it won't look the same at all.

I'm doing this because I wanna save time and money by avoiding to have to build and test responsive layouts from scratch.

I'm also not sure to how extent UI components can be copyrighted.

If you're going to be changing pretty much everything, then just buy Divi and you can custom build a hundred websites easily. £80 will give you unlimited websites for a year. I don't understand the need to steal a theme if you're selling it. It doesn't make sense to me. In every business venture you need to spend money to make money. You spend very little on a theme to make a lot of money - in only a few days in most cases I might add - on a client's website.

If you're really determined to do so. No, I don't think they will know that you're stealing it, but it's not impossible for them to put something into the code that you, if you don't know the ins and outs, won't recognise and will alert them to their theme being used elsewhere. Also, many themes require unique APIs, as far as I'm aware, that can't be used on multiple websites. Probably most important to me as a designer, it's also kind of a cunty thing to do. It's not like pirating a DVD of a film you were never going to watch. It's stealing something of value to you that you need and will make money from.

In addition to this, you 100% definitely cannot apply updates to a theme that you have used on multiple websites without an api. This, in the long term, will result in no updates to your theme and probably a significant amount (significant in this case only having to be 1) of security issues for you and your clients.

I say this seriously. If you don't care enough about your clients to ensure that they have a theme that has guaranteed long-time security, then you are about the worst kind of web designer I can imagine. My clients mean everything to me. They provide me with food, nice things, and allow me to live. That's not an exaggeration, that's how I see them. I couldn't imagine for one second betraying the trust that any one of them puts in me when they allow me to work on a large part of their entire business. If you don't get this, then, for F*cks sake man, please find another profession, because it's designers and developers like you who give the rest of us a bad name.

 

[awd]

I still don't get you.

You can:

- buy a theme and keep it the exact same and use for yourself
- buy a theme and keep it the exact same and use for your clients website
- buy a theme and edit it and use for yourself or for your clients websites

All of those are fine and what a theme is sold for.


You aren't meant to:

- Buy one theme and make 100 client websites with it.
You can but they are hoping you don't.

You can't:

- Buy a theme, edit it, and resell as your theme...

I would imagine they will come after someone who does this. It is obvious to a good coder if large chunks of code were copied and pasted from somewhere. That is 100% against TOS.

Anyway, there isn't much point in doing this anyway since it isn't even that profitable.

I'm honestly kind of surprised that any developer would be asking this question. If you're just going to customise a theme so completely that it's unrecognisable, then why not just build it from scratch and do what you wish?

 

[awd]

I wonder if there are any actual designers on this forum or everyone is just a student of Fox's program.

I'm not.

You still seriously need to rethink your career if you're considering doing this after all the valid arguments presented against it. When you're a web designer or a web developer, you're given such a huge amount of trust that I, personally, can't even imagine doing what you're suggesting. Don't take shortcuts when given the responsibility of working on a business's online presence, especially when web design is such a high paying profession, even at the low end. I've spent thousands, at the expense of myself, just to ensure that my future clients will have what they need for their business. I'd never even dream of penny pinching for the sake of a few quid.

 

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[awd]

Ok I just did some research and apparently it's completely legal because you can't copyright the look and feel of a design. You can only copyright specific components like logos, and other shapes. Since I'm not reusing any of those, I'm not doing anything illegal. But I'll do some more research and report back.

Even if I sell a website for $1million I'd still not pay $15 if I did the majority of the work. Paying for it once is enough.

Of course, if I was selling the exact same theme of every website then sure, I'd pay for it.

If you were to sell a $1million website with a theme you'd stolen, or even a £10,000 one, I guarantee you - 100% - that the creator of said theme would be able to sue you into the ground.

God, I'm so done with this thread. I really wish it wasn't the first one I read on here.

 

[awd]

Not a criminal act per se

I'm pretty sure it is. Read the terms of service on the themes on Themeforest. Reusing a theme is illegal according to their TOS.

Honestly, screw this guy. I'm not sure about the forum rules about saying to, but, seriously, F*ck him man.

 

[LaneMan]

I come back and all I see is wannabe millionaires demeaning me for asking a simple question?

Wow, just wow.

 

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[s.wirat13]

Just don't feed the troll, guys. He will do what he wants anyway.

 

[LaneMan]

Just don't feed the troll, guys. He will do what he wants anyway.

Good job! The best way to win an online argument is by calling the other person a troll and call it a day.

Should have done that from the start, why even bother replying?

 

[SkyLake]

Jeez. If you must do a shitty thing, then why are you so fixated on editing from the original one?

Can't you just do what everyone else does and copy the main ideas but with your own code?

 

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[100ToOne]

@LaneMan I think you asked your question in a way that opens up many ways of misunderstanding your question.

From your previous post I think what you meant is basically re-shape the whole theme to fit another client's need.

It is not Illegal NOR is it immoral. You can do it.

The only thing is though why the hell would you do that?

The people here are trying to help you understand that buying it ready-made to fit your second customer's need would be easier and cost saving for you on the long run. Because such huge modification would cost you many hours of designing and coding, you'd be at loss of time instead of focusing on making cash by buying it for $15 and selling it for let's say $100/$1000.

 

[satyaprakash]

Better to develop design your own custom coded themes, instead of selling free modified themes - Build Your Brand- Build your own Business.

 

[LaneMan]

Better to develop design your own custom coded themes, instead of selling free modified themes - Build Your Brand- Build your own Business.

Coding your own themes is a waste of time and clients don't care anyway. They just want a website to bring in new business.

They don't even know that premade themes exist and even if they did know they wouldn't care as long as the final design matches their brand.

My first 3 websites were custom coded and took a lot of time and effort because people use a ton of different browsers these days and you have to make sure your design doesn't break. In the end, the client didn't care about the custom coding or anything and was happy that he got a website.

These days, I prefer to grab a theme and modify it to suit my client's needs. It's still gonna look unique and will take half the time and effort.

Of course, most of the themes are of very low quality because they contain really bad code and a ton of unnecessary scripts. Fixing the code and removing the scripts to make the pages load faster takes time but it's not as bad as having to write something from scratch.

 

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[satyaprakash]

Coding your own themes is a waste of time and clients don't care anyway. They just want a website to bring in new business.

They don't even know that premade themes exist and even if they did know they wouldn't care as long as the final design matches their brand.

My first 3 websites were custom coded and took a lot of time and effort because people use a ton of different browsers these days and you have to make sure your design doesn't break. In the end, the client didn't care about the custom coding or anything and was happy that he got a website.

These days, I prefer to grab a theme and modify it to suit my client's needs. It's still gonna look unique and will take half the time and effort.

Of course, most of the themes are of very low quality because they contain really bad code and a ton of unnecessary scripts. Fixing the code and removing the scripts to make the pages load faster takes time but it's not as bad as having to write something from scratch.

1. Custom coding is necessary along with responsive + SEO friendly + creativity - Different business industry have to show different prospective with different creativity

2. Client always looks for a creative website.

3. Custom coded no doubt take time also it is very interesting to build a customized website - take more charge

4. What about the charge?

5. This is a tedious process to customize a theme.

I build only custom coded websites and apps, and I love it because it is very interesting.

 

[LaneMan]

1. Custom coding is necessary along with responsive + SEO friendly + creativity - Different business industry have to show different prospective with different creativity

2. Client always looks for a creative website.

3. Custom coded no doubt take time also it is very interesting to build a customized website - take more charge

4. What about the charge?

5. This is a tedious process to customize a theme.

I build only custom coded websites and apps, and I love it because it is very interesting.

You must be targeting entirely different types of businesses than I am because my clients don't care about the design/creativity at all.