Okay this may sound ridiculous, but I had someone ask for a layout I couldn't do awhile ago; so I respectfully declined apologizing for the inconvenience. Now my friend was like "Can't you just download a template and then do your own images/modify it? I can do layouts and such, but is that even legal? Does the template have to be royalty free or some crazy stuff? There are a lot of sites that offer "free templates" and what not, but to take something for free, put your own images and personalization, can you then redistribute? The idea was iffy to me so I didn't do it. But I thought it'd be a good question... Also I'm aware that for images if you modify certain images to an extent, like 30% or something I can't remember then it's legal for you to use (I know cause my dad had a store and he used the up and smoke guy but they modified it a bit). But I dunno about layouts??? Thanks for reading.
Unless you know where something is coming from, it's copyrighted with regard to content that can be copyrighted. General layouts is not that simple. If it's not unique and commonly used as part of regular practice there isn't a copyright for an "original work of authorship." It's part of coding and people will need to do it in order to create simple tables. Good rule - the more complex the layout the better chance it is a "unique and original" layout that is subject to copyright protection.
Riiiight. That's why designer's exist and have written agreements for such work. The rule is the more detailed the design, the better chance of copyright attaching. Much of this is common sense - if the work is original and not generic, chances are you're more likely to have a claim.
Wrong, CDPA S90 states: you would retain all copyright until the license was transferred (through payment to you). So unless you purchase the template with a written agreement that you can re-sell or redistribute it, no, you can't, as the template author still owns the copyright. Lawyer'ed. xD