Breaking copyrights or no?

[Grand]

Hi,
I wanted to ask this before i went ahead and did it.

Question:

I want to make my Gallery to look like our site, therefore i decided that the best way to do this is by copying one of the coppermine themes, so that the site and gallery look like one.

I am not very good at php coding, so i decided that a complete copy without the gallery tables, links, etc. Would be the best choice in to making the blend.

For example, people come to my site, see a certain layout, click on the gallery link, and it looks like they are still on the site. (Same design)

Thanks,
Mike

[TaiL]

Yeah i'd like to know this one as well. can also ask who was the person(s) who made project vii skin, wanna chat to em :-D

[Joachim Müller]

the themes that come with coppermine are released under the same license terms as coppermine itself: GNU GPL! This means (in short): you can use them and modify them as you wish, as long as you don't claim you made them yourself or try to sell them claiming it was your work.
In other words: use the theme on your site as you wish, and thanks for asking first (I wish there were more people concerned about copyright issues).
Afaik project vii was done by Greg, the original author of coppermine, who is not available for chat at the moment (see http://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php?topic=7 ).

GauGau

[Verto]

I kinda wonder if anybody actually reads the GPL before making claims about it.  Because actually, the GPL allows you to modify and sell GPL'd code so long as anyone who is to recieve binary versions, also recieves the source (modified or not.)  For example, from the FAQ, the stuff about how you can't remove the 'Powered by Coppermine' line is entirely unenforceable under the GPL.  The GPL doesn't afford for some parts of the same source to be modifyable and some to not be.  If that's how you want to do it, perhaps the developers should come up with their own license, but as is, they're not following the GPL as they claim.  And the thing about not wanting people to figure out how to remove the line is absurd.  You want to be open source and support the GNU way of doing things but you want to try and restrict a user's right under the GPL to modify the code as they see fit at the same time?  CPG developers, please, if you're going to use the GPL, use it, but actually read it's terms before doing so as you're not even close to GPL compliance as it is.  

[Joachim Müller]

@Verto: you're right, and we are aware of this. Please consider: we have taken over the project coppermine some months ago because it was "orphaned"; the original author "Greg" has put it under GNU GPL, and he has made up the "rule" with the "Powered by"-Tag not to be removed. Of course this can't be enforced, but it's our choice not to support people who remove the tag - that's all; we're aware that we can't sue people (and we won't) for removing it (and I'm not interessted in a discussion).

Let's see it this way: it's my choice to spend a lot of my time on a project that's free (whatever license in detail), but I'm also free to decide how I work on it. If someone is not happy with the way I work, he's free to tell.

Please understand that I don't start a discussion on the GPL with everybody asking if he/she could modify a theme: people usually aren't interessted in copyright and licensing issues, but just want to be nice; I appreciate if they ask first and I won't bother to go into detail: that's why my summary of the GPL was very short and inacurate, but I think Grand (who started this thread) received the answer he was looking for...

GauGau

[Verto]

Oh, I entirely agree with the ethics of not removing it out of giving 'credit where credit is due', I was just pointing it out, just in case you weren't aware.  Too many developers I've seen who didn't actually read the GPL before using it.  

Anyway, sorry if I came off too aggressive