New License Discussion - Authors using items in their themes

JaredRitchey said
I want to be 100% crystal clear though. I purchased a few “extended license” items on my personal “Envato” account and my business account that are in fact used in a product I produce. I understand the old license is enforced but from this point on I can no longer purchase items from Envato to use in items I may use in products I produce? I ask because I have plans to get a few icon sets and some items from CodeCanyon I was hoping to put into a new theme I’m developing. Granted WordPress stuff is GNU/GPL but many of the items I want to purchase from you are not which is why I hoped the extended license would still allow me to build my themes for sale.

You are no longer able to buy items from the Envato marketplaces and use them in themes for sale, whether the themes you sell are GPL or not.

Yep, poor guys from ThemePunch and kreatura, they going to have their inbox full with those requests. Lucky me I’ve bought the ext license yesterday before the new rules applied

But, to be serious, for me as an author of WordPress themes nothing has changed, it just made things worse. There’s rarely a theme released this days that doesn’t have some plugin (like sliders) from CodeCanyon, and it was quite simple fact that if authors sell their sliders (or other items) on Ext. license they agree that others will use them in themes for TF. Now we have to make some private agreements which will just make things more complicated and take more time. I’d be more happy to see increase of prices for Ext license than this change – The slider for which I have to pay 75$ and can use it in theme is ridiculously cheap comparing to the profits that it can generate, the same goes for photos (comparing to other microstocks).

And again, for me as WP themes author new license doesn’t change anything in terms of selling WP Themes on extended license – I’ve sold my items more than 7000 times – not once there was a ext. license, despite the fact I’ve stumbled couple of times on cases that it should be bought – why it wasn’t? It’s too expensive and even with new changes it doesn’t encourage buyers to purchase it.

On the brightside, the new landing pages for license are much more clear, good job on them.

Please add new use-in-stock license, I’m sure theme authors on ThemeForest will be more than happy to pay adequate price for this kind of license, but not having such option AT ALL is not good..

purethemes said
Yep, poor guys from ThemePunch and kreatura, they going to have their inbox full with those requests. Lucky me I’ve bought the ext license yesterday

Hehe, I don’t know why that was the first thing that popped into my head!

Keep in mind that you can still use other items in your previews. For example, a theme developer may use watermarked photos in their theme preview and ,as long as they link back to the actual file in the description, that’s fine. If they don’t want to link back and don’t want to use a watermarked version, they can just purchase a regular license of the file (preview only). Most authors seem to go this route already.

Tragic, the license took a step backwards really. Many themes and such are born of composits such as sliders, navigation elements and even some artwork. Doesn’t this license now force everyone to buy items, modify them substantially before they use in order to avoid problems?

“a theme developer may use watermarked photos in their theme preview” photos where from?

Nice to see some action on licenses – I’m hoping (due to today’s debacle elsewhere re Envato Vs WordPress Foundation) that we have further changes – one thing that doesn’t make sense to me however is this explanation under Extended license which seems to contradict what is said here:

Our Extended License allows use of the item in one single end product, which you or one client may sell to end users.

so… if I am buying an extended license I use in a theme (that’s the single end product) which I (you) then sell to end users (buyers)... seems when read like this it’s no different than before?

Personally I welcome the you can’t use in a theme as there are FAR too many themes that all look the same and all use the same 2 or 3 sliders.

Jonathan

LanceSnider said
You are no longer able to buy items from the Envato marketplaces and use them in themes for sale, whether the themes you sell are GPL or not.

In Collis’ post about the new policy he says

“If you’re an author and want to use another author’s item in your larger stock item (as part of the download) it is still possible to make your own informal direct arrangements with the other author.”

What does this mean, exactly? If we want to include “X” slider plugin in a wordpress theme like 90% of themes have, instead of buying the slider plugin on codecanyon as an extended license we have to contact its author and arrange an amount and license write up outside of themeforest/codecanyon? How will this even be regulated to ensure authors actually have the plugin creator’s permission?