I was wondering, if I make a theme that is "inspired" by another theme, would that be against the law? For example, i saw this real nice wordpress theme that I would like to change a bit, and make it into a proxy template. Would I be allowed to do that without getting into any legal trouble? I know some of you will probably say that I should contact the creator, but it seems like his site is down so i can't really get in contact with him. Please Help. Thanks Nick EDIT: Also, I just looked through wordpress, and I can't seem to find the actual theme. (It came installed with the one-click install from dreamhost)
Well the specific theme is copyrighted unless it states that it's in the public domain. Creating a theme "inspired" by that theme could be viewed as creating a derivative work, which would be a copyright violation. That all depends on how close it is to the original theme (changing it a bit, would most likely fall under the derivative work category). The best thing is indeed to contact the creator of the original theme and get his permission. If you don't you do stand a good chance of them taking action against you (again depending on the extent of your "inspired theme).
It is difficult to judge as it is ultimately down to "the courts" to decide if your in breach of copyright or not if it isnt identical Having a different purpose for the site will assist as it helps remove the passing off aspect but it is never as clear cut as just that.
Well I finished making and coding it, all i have to do is see if he'd let me use it or not before publishing. Hopefully he'll be okay with it BTW, here is the original, www.proxyfido.com