Joomla! Discussion Forums

@Absolom,

Thanks for making this crystal clear. I've read in a few forums about people removing copyrights etc and this should hopefully keep everyone on the straight n' narrow

Im kind of confused and just want to make sure (hope you dont mind). Supposed Im a web designer that use Joomla to make website for my customers (design template, set up, etc...) and charge them (of course ^^) some fee for my work (not for Joomla^^). Is it legal or not? Oh, I forgot to mention but I dont remove Joomla copyrights at the bottom of the page.

Maybe you have to take a look at your joomla GPL and template GPL, as long as your attempts do not break those in the GPL then you should consider safe (good law practitoner).

You may also have to include the template copyright beside the joomla copyright in the footer to show your respect to the creator of the template if that template were downloaded freely over the internet

As you can see on the footer of this forum, joomla include forum copyright by SMF, template design by rhuk, and icon design by Foood.

Thanks!!! Ofcourse who would take away those copyrighted things, to me they look nice and all, just like decoration, honestly.

With SMF, you would need to keep the 'powered by SMF' notice, this is explained in their license. You can remove the footer of Joomla in your Joomla website, this is no problem and is allowed (Joomla will still show in the meta tags of your site).

Decoration ? Not everyone thinks so, but yours is commendable.


I think there must be a way to snatch the meta tag from joomla to our won tag, is it ? 

Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing. O'Reilly 2004, 1.4 MB ZIP/1.8 MB PDF
http://www.open-sef.org/downloads/open_ ... tware.html

Kenmcd - that is a great resource, thanks. Will have to print and read closely. Why do you do the things you do, Ken? Always helping - we *much* appreciate you!

Thanks Amy.

Quiz next Wednesday - better start reading.

Yikes!  Do you know how long it's been since I took a quiz?   Hopefully, it's open-book!

If a developer has taken out the copyright information at the bottom of their Joomla installation who would we report this to?

ferret - do you mean the visual footer information?  If so this is allowed to be removed/and or changed.  What cannot be changed is the copyright information located inside the code of Joomla.

I'm confused. Here is my situation. I'm a designer writing my own template totally from scratch. I design my own css template and do not copy anything. This is for a website sold to my customer using my design exclusively. I do not want others to steal it or copy it as I need to protect my customer who has paid me for my design.

However, it uses Joomla 1.5 so there are certain credits inside required for that. I do not need to say Joomla for the public to see on the page.

But what do I put in the <copyright>GPL</copyright> line. Do I use GPL or does that allow people to copy my work.

I don't mind sharing code that I develop for friends, self, family, or even non-profit orgs, but I can't allow free access to something that will belong to my customer. Please someone explain what I do in this case. Thanks.

ps. I understand that if I were to use someone else's template then I would need to follow all the rules. I'm talking only here about my own work entirely.

thanks,
macuser

You cannot change the copyright or license statements in the Joomla! code.

You can license your template however you wish.

I'm sorry but your answer is not making sense for me. I appreciate you taking the time but I would still like an answer please if I may have one.

Yes the Joomla code has its own copyright - yes - and this is absolute. But I am talking about my template. My template is not joomla code. I am trying very very hard to understand the new joomla book template instructions for 1.5 and it gives this line for copyright: <copyright>GPL</copyright>

I can't for anything in the world figure out what I would enter into that line - I have no clue at all.
I don't want to give away my template to others with GPL because I can't - my customer will buy it from me.

So what do I put there? I am stumped.

Please help.

thank you,
macuser

That is just an example of what you can put there, and how it needs to be formatted in the xml file. You do not have to license your template as GPL.

OH - thank you. Is there anywhere that I can go to learn about how to license then, as I presume I have to use that copyright line and find something to put in it. I do not know where to begin. I have always just put a copyright statement on the front of all my websites.

thank you for taking the time,
macuser

<copyright>The Company You are Doing the Work For</copyright>

As you are doing it as a work for hire.. you don't own the copyright unless you have discussed it with them. If you have discussed it with them, sometimes you can work a joint copyright, although most times when you do a work for hire, your work and all copyrights are owned by the people paying you to do the work.

Perfect! Thank you!
Thanks so much.

Macuser