Hello. When I customize a theme ( creating my own .css file and doing other stuff ) can people then legally copy that .css file, which they find when they use the view source feature of their browser?
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I went through all the points under Licensing and I'm glad there is a point about distribution, because that has always been unclear to me. It says ( point 11 ), that viewing a website is not distributing it. Still the customized theme is a derivative work and therefore goes under the GPL. Are people therefore allowed to copy for example stylesheet files or javascript files when they are able to get their hands on them ( which is easy by viewing the page's source )? Does it make a difference if I create the .css file on my own or modify an existing one? The newly created .css file would still refer to elements of the GPLed theme though...
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If I use drupal for a blog and post an image ( for example a picture of me surfing ), it is not under the GPL ( unless I want it to ), right? However if the image is part of the theme ( part of a derivative work ), for example as a background image, then it is also licensed under GPL, right?
Comments
Fuzzy
Web tech makes the lines around "derivative works" a bit fuzzy. In general, for the purposes of a theme you can say that a given part of it is a derivative work of a GPLed component if it calls into a GPLed component. Viz, Drupal's JS is GPLed, so your JS that uses Drupal's JS must also be GPLed. A CSS file you write entirely yourself is not subject to the GPL. An image may or may not be depending on how you made the image. Etc.
Content you post to your blog is "just data" from the point of view of the code, so the GPL does not apply and you can license it however you'd like.
In practice, "view source and save" on a web site is usually not legal, but may be depending on the details of what they're saving and from where. In practice, virtually everyone does it anyway, rightly or wrongly. And in practice, technological mechanisms to try and make that harder to do are counter-productive, doomed to failure, and just make life harder for you and for your honest readers/customers.