What is the Best License to use for Themes?

mattrixk

Hey all, this is a question for anyone that makes themes, or anyone that knows anything about licenses.

I'm working on a new theme and I want to know the best license to use.

I don't mind if people use the code, as long as they acknowledge where it came from (eg: "based on [theme name] by MattrixK" or something), but I don't want them to be able to use any of the images (I've already spent quite a while on them, and I've only just started).

Can I use one of the licenses that Github suggests when you create a new Repo?

I'm looking at https://choosealicense.com/licenses/ but I can't see one that fills my needs.

Is it enough for me to simply state in the XML or ReadMe that "no one is allowed to use my images for any reason"? Is that legally binding?

MWGemini

@mattrixk I'm not a lawyer, and not an expert when it comes to licenses, so keep that in mind. I'd say that regardless of what license you choose and whether or not something is legally binding, people will still steal your work, whether out of malice or ignorance. The real question is- what do you plan to do when people violate your copyright or usage license? At a corporate level, they've got lawyers to deal with that, but on a community or personal level, it's much more difficult and unrealistic for you to go after people who steal and/or try to profit from your work. Case in point: all of the people selling RetroPie on EBay and Kickstarter and other sites. Is it legal? Nope. But sometimes it's hard to enforce.

mattrixk

Thanks for the reply @MWGemini. I suppose "legally binding" was a bit of a strong word choice. People steal. It happens and I'm not going to get my panties in a bunch over it.

In saying that, I know that this community is made up of awesome people, and if I just put a note in my ReadMe file saying "please don't steal my work", that should be enough. It will stop the people that will listen to it, and the ones that don't listen to it would do it no matter what I said.

I'm worried I might be sounding like a hypocrite with this. I've made 3 themes so far:

MetaPixel used the Systems, Logos and some background artwork from Pixel by Rookervik (with proper attribution) because I liked Pixel a lot, but needed genre, description and number of players. I also did a bunch of background and border art myself, based on the existing Pixel artwork.
Spare was created to teach people how to make themes. All the Logo graphics were from the default Carbom theme. All design and other artwork was made by me.
Io was an experiment, playing with SVGs and seeing if I could create a monochrome, modular theme that could be used on any screen size, from large TV's, down to tiny handheld PiGrrls. Again, all the Logo graphics were from the default Carbon theme, but I went through every SVG and turned them all monochrome (well technically bi-chrome I guess, considering many consist of 2 colours, light and dark). That was time consuming.

The new one I'm making is the first one I've made from scratch without using/modifying other people's resources. I started with a blank photoshop file and went from there, so I'm a bit more protective of it.

I don't mind people using my code to learn how to make their own themes, as the code is easy for me to do. The artwork is hard for me though, so it takes longer and I'm more strongly attached to it when it works out.

MWGemini

@mattrixk Yep, I totally understand WHY you want to protect your work- and your should, and you have every right to. Just saying that I've seen very expensive (and not necessarily successful) corporate legal battles over stuff like this.

As for which license to use, I don't know enough about the various licenses out there right now to make an educated suggestion for you. Perhaps @herb_fargus or @BuZz might have some suggestions.