[SOLVED] Is it against the gpl license terms to remove credits?
 

i.e Copyright © 2009 Oskabrunnur - All Rights Reserved
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there are directions for removing the credits in the gold forum

If you do not need instruction, are you legally free to remove the credits. I am a bit confused about the license.

The theme is free to use, but if you want to know how to remove the credit in the footer, you need to donate, and then you'll have access to the Gold section, where you'll find instructions for removal of the credit.

So if you dont need instructions on how to do it then you can just do it then?

I believe you must make a donation to be allowed to remove the footer.

Nobody is stopping you. But I feel that when somebody (Flynn) has put in so much blood, sweat and tears into producing something as valuable as this theme, he ought to be rewarded financially. And Juggledad has been a great help, answering so many questions here in the forum; he also deserves to be compensated.

Well I am confused .

If the theme is supposed to be open source then according to the gpl license as I understand it , it can be modified in any way the user sees fit as long as the derived work is distributed according to the same gpl license.

This all seems a little bizarre to me . Fine, the guys deserve to get paid. Why distribute using an open source gpl license though? Why dont they distribute with a more restrictive end user agreement or license?


As I see it the author has no right insinuating that a fee should be paid to remove the credits.

It is kind of strange as it stands that the product has no documentation and that questions regarding the theme probably wont be answered unless you donate.

Actually , this piece of software is not complex enough for this to be a significant barrier to its use, it is just kind of weird, although i can see that the author needs to eat. I might note that I havent actually encountered this kind of compensation scheme before.

Atahualpa is GPL with no strings attached. You can remove the credit links. You wouldn't be the first one to do that, and I will have no hard feelings. I ask for a donation from those who want help with the credit links. Donors get more attention obviously, and in the future I'll make it a point to favor donors even more.

Your remarks about "no support without donation" are a bit unfair considering the enormous amount of time I and Juggledad have put into free support in the past months. See our post counts? Many of these posts took 10, 20, 30, 40 minutes and many of them were for non-donors.

My comments regarding being a sponsor maybe were somewhat unfair. I do feel though that if you provide no documentation and at the present time you are concentrating on answering questions from sponsors then people who are just beginning with the theme are slightly disadvantaged. Of course you have in the past provided plenty of free support and are perhaps rather overwhelmed and you must prioritize your time.

Thankyou for the clear answer to the original question. Some of the other answers were dancing around the subject somewhat, and i just wanted clarification. Sorry for any offence caused.

Please explain what you mean with "dancing around the subject"

Well , I was asking a straightforward question that was answered unclearly until your posted your reply.

I was asking if i was free to remove the credits and i was being advised that if i donate i could gain access to the gold forum to receive instructions etc.

marc - this is silly - and you are being silly. The GPL is a legal issue - you got your answer (and you got it the first time). You just aren't liking the point people are making that donations help. Despite the reminders that donations help get support, in fact all questions get answered if they can be answered. I personally did NOT donate to get support. I donated because I felt Flynn deserved it for what he was doing in continually upgrading and improving a free theme. Flynn and juggledad work hard to answer all the questions here - including those from people who did not pay. Other forum members chip in as they feel like it.