Putting myself in the themers’ shoes, if I released a GPL theme, with paid support, and someone released a modded version for free, I’d be willing to provide support, but it’d have to be at a premium as the modded theme would require more time to figure out completely (assuming actual changes are made).

Like you I totally feel for any premium themers who devoted time and money into creating a kickass theme only to see someone else release it for free BUT they really can’t complain.

By placing their themes under the GPL, they basically said do whatever you want, and now that people are doing whatever they want it’s not OK…

Does it suck for the theme dev? Yeah.

Is it unethical?

It’s tough to say it is. The rules were spelled out and they’re following the rules.

A bigger question, IMO, is what will happen to support? If someone downloads a modded theme, then looks to get support, AND buys a license, should they receive support for a modded theme? I’d say no but I can see this “movement” leading to a lot of headaches.

From your essay it sounds as if GPL makes this a legal practice. But I don’t find it to be ethical.

It is very much akin to plagiarizing. Grab a substantial piece of someone else’s work and pass it off as your own hoping for a good grade, no matter how unearned.

Usually when people tell me that taking someone else’s property, music, themes, writing, etc. causes no harm, I find they are unwilling to give me the money in their wallet or bank account. But when they do these supposedly innocuous activities, it takes, or deprives, money from a rightful owner.

Just because it is on the internet does not make it any less a degree of theft or unethical behavior.

I recently paid for a theme for two reasons: the theme’s usability feature fo a low-tech old guy like me, and because of the support behind the theme when I get down to learning how to use it. Those who steal, legally or otherwise, will hopefully find the support barrier a real one.

Thanks for taking this on.

Semper Pax, Dr. Z