RE: OScommerce templates only £7.99
awebapart | 09/06/2006 09:34 AM
I currently feel that this is a grey area when considering oscommerce templates, copyright, and the Open Source GNU General Public License (GPL) which oscommerce adheres to.
To make a decent oscommerce template is not just the case of applying a graphical skin, it involves taking the oscommerce GPLed PHP, HTML, Javascript, MySQL, and CSS source code, applying other freely available GPLed oscommerce modules, and making your own alterations and enhancements to the source code, which in turn must be GPLed. When I first looked at the oscommerce code (and even with the latest version) I couldn't believe how even some of the most simple visual changes required making changes to oscommerce PHP code! Oscommerce is a bit of a hardcoded beast!
Since the majority of an oscommerce template's visuals are determined by code changes to these code bases, they are GPLed too, which means that most of a fully working oscommerce template cannot be copyrighted, or patented, etc, or restricted from distribution in any way. You can charge a distribution fee, but there is no copyright/restrictions involved in the code changes, you must supply the source, and anyone who receives your template has the same rights and obligations as you.
That's the major percentage of the oscommerce template covered, i.e. the code, the remaining small percentage is the graphics files including the utility graphics like buttons, corners, gradients, and the branded graphics like banner logos, people pictures etc. The branded graphics like logos you wont want anyway since 'your logo goes here', but the other images may be copyrightable.
For the template in question:
www.templatemonster.com/website-templates/2539.html
This is not a working oscommerce template, it is just a suggested layout provided in .psd and .html format. Now if someone has taken this layout and made it into a working oscommerce template, then most of the work to do this would involve oscommerce code alterations which are GPL'ed and thus not copyrightable/protectable. The very small percentage (1%) of the oscommerce template that uses graphics files may be copyrightable and thus not allowed to be distributed.
The templatemonster template in question, and many other templatemonster templates, do raise another issue on copyright... did the template designer use any graphics, clipart, or photos in making their template that have their own copyright restrictions, which means that the templatedesigner may be breaking copyright by distributing the template. For instance the photo of the woman, did the template designer take this photograph, if not and he used stock imagery then there may be a copyright issue there, since with clip art and stock photography you are not allowed to create derived works and distribute/sell them as clipart, stock, or templates.
Anyway those are my thoughts on what I see as a grey area. It would be great to get other people's thoughts on this too, and the thoughts of the oscommerce template seller and the templatemonster template seller.
For your reference, here are the main links to the oscommerce open source license information:
www.oscommerce.com/about/opensource
and the license under which it is released:
www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.html
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Paul - www.awebapart.com - 'a web apart'
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