Icy Phoenix :: View topic

Mighty Gorgon [ Tue 29 May, 2007 01:28 ]
Post subject: Copyright

Hi all.

It comes to my attention several Copyright problems, so I've decided to write this post.

First of all I would like to point out that Icy Phoenix is distributed under the GNU GPL, because it is based on phpBB which is distributed under the same license and requires that all its derived product are released under the same license.

Having said that... I would like to stress that if you choose Icy Phoenix you should at least keep a link to this site and to phpBB on all pages in which you are using this CMS. I can't force you to keep this... but we won't provide support to users which shows sites without proper copyright.

Regarding templates... if someone creates a new template and this is using many graphic elements from another template, then permission to the author should be asked and a link to the original template author should be preserved (unless the author expressely accept you to remove such a link).

For example...

I've adapted Morpheus created by CyberAlien under his permission and his copyright is there.

Someone did use some graphics elements created by myself: everyone is welcome to do it, my work is free to be used and distributed, but in these case the original link I provide with my works should be preserved. I don't mind if only few graphics is used, but if you do include a full set of buttons, then my copyright should be there... The same for buttons and graphics created by anyone else, unless the author expressely declares that no copyright is needed.

If you have doubt about what I've posted here, feel free to ask me privately.

Some example of modified copyright you may use for templates:

Quote:
Design by Mighty Gorgon modified by XXX

Quote:
Design by by XXX
based on XXX by Mighty Gorgon

Quote:
Design by XXX - Some graphics by Mighty Gorgon

I think you got my point...

Thank you for your cooperation.
Luca

______________________________________

If you find here in Icy Phoenix something that is missing credit where credit is due, please contact me.

DWho [ Tue 29 May, 2007 11:30 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

Mighty Gorgon wrote: [View Post]
Hi all.

It comes to my attention several Copyright problems, so I've decided to write this post.

First of all I would like to point out that Icy Phoenix is distributed under the GNU GPL, because it is based on phpBB which is distributed under the same license and requires that all its derived product are released under the same license.

Having said that... I would like to stress that if you choose Icy Phoenix you should at least keep a link to this site and to phpBB on all pages in which you are using this CMS. I can't force you to keep this... but we won't provide support to users which shows sites without proper copyright.

Regarding templates... if someone creates a new template and this is using many graphic elements from another template, then permission to the author should be asked and a link to the original template author should be preserved (unless the author expressely accept you to remove such a link).

For example...

I've adapted Morpheus created by CyberAlien under his permission and his copyright is there.

Someone did use some graphics elements created by myself: everyone is welcome to do it, my work is free to be used and distributed, but in these case the original link I provide with my works should be preserved. I don't mind if only few graphics is used, but if you do include a full set of buttons, then my copyright should be there... The same for buttons and graphics created by anyone else, unless the author expressely declares that no copyright is needed.

If you have doubt about what I've posted here, feel free to ask me privately.

Some example of modified copyright you may use for templates:

Quote:
Design by Mighty Gorgon modified by XXX

Quote:
Design by by XXX
based on XXX by Mighty Gorgon

Quote:
Design by XXX - Some graphics by Mighty Gorgon

I think you got my point...

Thank you for your cooperation.
Luca

______________________________________

If you find here in Icy Phoenix something that is missing credit where credit is due, please contact me.

Hi

A great post and indeed it does ned to be stated as I know from experiance mny people will remove copyright in the believe that the can get away with it...

They forget all the hard work and sweat that went into making a script in the first place...

Frost [ Wed 30 May, 2007 10:19 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

I think that anytime a designer makes a theme, 99% of the time he will be making it from another template. Wether it is subsilver or acidtech it will be created from something. 99% of themes that are new came from something else, most of the time it is from a template the user liked in the first place, then started editing.

I bet 9 out of 10 themes out right now all came from subsilver to begin with, then someone made a theme off of that, then someone else made something from that etc etc.

I always choose subsilver to use as a base because it is permitted to do so without asking any questions. It is supplied as a base template right in the package. I always leave "Originally subSilver" in the copyright, but I don't believe you have to.

As far as copying another's style, even if you change it completely, you should remember where it came from. If someone uses one of my styles and changes it completely with new colors, graphics, code, buttons etc, it is no longer my style and no copyright would be required. However, if you use any of the same images you should leave the copyright notice, and if there is a copyright notice on the footer, that should remain intact as well.

Nobody can stop you from changing their styles or removing their copyright, but eventually they will see it and coming from experience it sucks when you see your style on another person's site, with them claiming they made it, even if you contact them, they deny it and ban you. There is nothing worse than that disrespect. Like someone said above, it takes a while to perfect a theme, and even longer doing the graphics. Do what you will with the style but have the courtesy to give them credit.

If you are reading this post, or this topic, chances are you are a designer or becoming one. You won't get very far by stealing or disrespecting anyone. You make a name for yourself, and ruining that name will cost you everything.

Just do to other designers, what you want done to you

The point of this is, be creative! If you have to use someone else's theme, then do it and have fun with it, learn from it. It flatters us even if it's not the same anymore because you chose ours, and in some way our work made a difference to someone.

Mighty Gorgon [ Wed 30 May, 2007 11:47 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

I totally agree Frost.

Press 22 [ Sat 04 Aug, 2007 08:49 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

Say if I changed the color of a button does that still require me to have credit to who made the style?

My thing currently says

Powered by Icy Phoenix based on phpBB ©
Design by Press 22/ phpBBStyles.com | Styles Database

I left it like that since I did make some stuff but not all of them... yet.

- Also I'd like to make a style to release and love if you would help me with the packaging.

Mighty Gorgon [ Fri 10 Aug, 2007 16:09 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

Press 22 wrote: [View Post]
Say if I changed the color of a button does that still require me to have credit to who made the style?

My thing currently says

Powered by Icy Phoenix based on phpBB ©
Design by Press 22/ phpBBStyles.com | Styles Database

I left it like that since I did make some stuff but not all of them... yet.

- Also I'd like to make a style to release and love if you would help me with the packaging.

When you create your style starting from another one usually you should keep the original copyright... unless you change it so much that starting and final styles doesn't match at all... Of course creating a style for phpBB you have to start for something already created... because you can't invent the whole template from scratch, simply because you cannot guess the structure.

In few words... if you change only the colors of some elements you should keep the original copyright... you can add your, but the original copyright must be there.

Of course we will help you in the process of creating a new theme should you need any help...

moreteavicar [ Mon 07 Apr, 2008 16:15 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

On the topic of lamers in general removing the copyright notices - you can of course catch them out if you view the page source - unless they are a little bit more clever than changing overall_footer, you will see all the phpbb, xs styles and icy phoenix comments that litter the templates... and of course, the actual names of directories of where things are located gives the game away

I always think Vjacheslav Trushkin's copyright notice is a bit extreme (why it's called extreme styles no doubt!) I mean, yes, you don't want somebody duplicating your hard work and passing it off as their own - but if somebody takes an existing theme of his and modifies / improves it to the extent that its almost completely re-written, then its not really his theme anymore, so why demand that people beg permission from him to use the theme they effectively created... and really, here, you don't have any choice to create a theme for XS/icy from scratch, there are just too many things, and at some point all coders borrow code ideas and snippets from elsewhere, and adapt to their needs, I bet including Trushkin himself. I don't know what similarity there is now in mg_themes and any theme written by Trushkin, yet his copyright notice still exists... (in comments in source)

To have such strict copyright notices, I wonder if he works at Microsoft...

Limun [ Sat 12 Apr, 2008 14:22 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

another question....

what can i change here exept meta tags , without having problems with MG

and his great work ?

Spoiler: [ Show ]

as this 3 lines i will never change...
* begin : 2007/03/25
* author : Mighty Gorgon
* email :

but other ?

Thanks !

KasLimon [ Sun 13 Apr, 2008 11:05 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

I highlighted you the lines you should translate/change if you need to.

Spoiler: [ Show ]

Code: [Hide] [Select]

<?php

/***************************************************************************

 *                            lang_main_settings.php [English]

 *                              -------------------

 *     begin                : 2007/03/25

 *     author               : Mighty Gorgon

 *     email                : mightygorgon@mightygorgon.com

 *

 ****************************************************************************/

/***************************************************************************

 *

 *   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 2 of the License, or

 *   (at your option) any later version.

 *

 ***************************************************************************/

$lang['Index'] = 'Icy Phoenix';

$lang['Default_META_Keywords'] = 'phpbb, forum, icy phoenix, icyphoenix, icy, phoenix, php, portal, cms, premodded, community, open source, mods, templates';

$lang['Default_META_Description'] = 'Icy Phoenix is an highly customizable CMS based on phpBB which allows you to create a dynamic site with a lot of features for powering web communities.';

$lang['Default_META_Title'] = 'Icy Phoenix';

$lang['Default_META_Author'] = 'Mighty Gorgon And Icy Phoenix Staff :: http://www.icyphoenix.com/';

$lang['Default_META_Copyright'] = '(c) 2001-2007 Mighty Gorgon';

$lang['Welcome_Message'] = 'Welcome to <span class="topic_glo">Icy Phoenix</span><br />';

$lang['register_pm_subject'] = 'Welcome to %s';

$lang['register_pm'] = 'Hello!<br /><br />Welcome to %s. <br /><br />We hope you enjoy your time at this site! <br /><br />Feel free to join in and share with others or start your own discussion!<br /><br />~Enjoy!<br />&bull; %s &bull; Staff ';

$lang['Support_Us'] = 'Support Us';

$lang['PayPal'] = '<img src="images/paypal.gif" alt="' . $lang['Support_Us'] . '" title="' . $lang['Support_Us'] . '" />';

/* Example of code you may add... replace with your own code.

$lang['PayPal'] = '

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">

<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">

<input type="image" src="images/paypal.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="' . $lang['Support_Us'] . '">

<input type="hidden" name="encrypted" value="">

</form>

';

*/

$lang['OwnerSiteOwner'] = 'Mighty Gorgon';

$lang['OwnerSite'] = 'Icy Phoenix';

$lang['OwnerCompany'] = 'Icy Phoenix';

$lang['OwnerDetails'] = 'Icy Phoenix';

$lang['OwnerAdrress'] = 'Italy';

$lang['OwnerServer'] = 'Icy Phoenix';

$lang['PrivacyDisclaimer'] = 'You specifically agree that your personal data will be treated in respect to current law in the country of the site owner.<br />';

$lang['ENCODING'] = 'iso-8859-1';

$lang['ENCODING_ALT'] = 'utf8';

$lang['DIRECTION'] = 'ltr';

$lang['HEADER_LANG'] = 'en-gb';

$lang['HEADER_XML_LANG'] = 'en-gb';

$lang['LEFT'] = 'left';

$lang['RIGHT'] = 'right';

$lang['DATE_FORMAT'] = 'd F y H:i'; // This should be changed to the default date format for your language, php date() format

$lang['DATE_FORMAT_MG'] = 'Y/m/d - H:i';

$lang['DATE_FORMAT_BIRTHDAY'] = 'd F Y';

$lang['DATE_FORMAT2'] = 'd F Y'; // This should be changed to the default date format for your language, php date() format

$lang['JOINED_DATE_FORMAT'] = 'F Y'; // Date format of Joined date, php date() format

// This is optional, if you would like a _SHORT_ message output

// along with our copyright message indicating you are the translator

// please add it here.

$lang['TRANSLATION_INFO'] = 'You can add here your translation copyright';

$lang['TRANSLATION'] = 'You can add here your translation copyright';

?>

Greets!

Limun [ Sun 13 Apr, 2008 11:26 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

thank you very much Kas L.
very useful...

Mighty Gorgon [ Tue 15 Apr, 2008 22:59 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

No... you can change what you want in lang_main_settings.php. You are free to change it completely.

The only copyright you need to leave is the one in the footer with a backlink to this site.

Limun [ Wed 16 Apr, 2008 01:29 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

Thank you MG

Mighty Gorgon [ Wed 08 Oct, 2008 12:20 ]
Post subject: Re: Copyright

Locking this because it has been used for off topics content.

All you have to know about Icy Phoenix copyrights is here.

Should you need other clarifications, please use the Off Topic section.

Thanks.

Icy Phoenix

News And Announcements - Copyright