All marketplace sellers must have full rights to any item sold in the AppThemes Marketplace. That includes having full rights or license to use any auxiliary content that it makes use of.

Copyright laws are something that we take very seriously. There are serious consequences for doing the wrong thing. Please avoid misusing the work of other people.

If we discover that a work has violated copyright, the seller will be banned from our marketplace and funds made from the sale of that work will be withheld. Additionally, it is possible that the affected party could take legal action against you.

What is Copyright?

You can find a full definition of copyright on the U.S. Copyright office website. The following is a very short description.

Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works.

Only the copyright holder of a work may do the following:

• Make copies of the work and distribute them.
• Create derivative works or alter the work in any way.
• Sell the work in either its original version or in an altered form.
• Grant or sell licenses to use the work.

Remember the creator of a work retains copyright to it even if they don’t expressly tell you so.

Licenses and Using Other People’s Work

The seller is responsible for all copyright use or potential copyright violations in his or her files. For sellers to make use of another person’s work, they must have a license to do so.
Sellers should look carefully at licenses to see what they permit and what they do not. Different licenses may allow developers to do different things. To use an asset, sellers should have a license that allows the assets use in items for resale and redistribution.

What happens if there doesn’t appear to be a license?

If no license is expressly granted, sellers should contact the original copyright holder and receive written permission.
The penalties for breaching copyright can be severe. AppThemes takes copyright violations very seriously and will not tolerate copyright violation in the marketplace.

What is a Copyright Infringement?

A copyright infringement or violation is the unauthorized use of work that is covered by copyright. If you use, alter or sell another person or company’s work without a license or their written permission then you are violating their copyright and are breaking the law.

If you suspect another file has infringed on the copyright of your work or others, you should contact AppThemes support to report it.

Here are some requirements to comply with copyright violations:

• The item must NOT include any brand names, logos or trademarks. – For example you cannot use an Apple or McDonalds logo, even if you have recreated it, photographed it, or altered it. You cannot use a photo of a watch if the brand name of the watch is legible.
• The item must NOT be based on any other item. – For example you cannot submit a website template that is based on an established website. Similarly you cannot submit an item which is too similar to another item for sale in the AppThemes Marketplace or another website.
• You must NOT upload an item that uses free or purchased components from any other source UNLESS you have an express license to do so. – For example you cannot download a file then use part or all of it in a file for sale unless it specifically states that it is usable in items for resale.
• You must NOT upload an item that uses government or military property – For example you cannot submit an item that contains a presidential seal or military insignia.
• You must NOT purchase or download any item then resell it – you cannot submit an item that you have purchased or downloaded from another site.

Licenses

WordPress and AppThemes products are licensed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License (“GPLv3”) or later.  This means all derivative works (in the copyright-law sense) of AppThemes and WordPress must also be licensed under the GPLv3 or later.  Since Cascading Style Sheets (“CSS”) and images are not considered derivative works, they may be sold under a proprietary license, but such proprietary license must give purchasers in the marketplace a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable license to copy, display, and make derivative works of the CSS and images, either for personal or commercial use.

If you do not want to or cannot grant these rights, your items cannot be sold in the marketplace. Please do not attempt to upload them as they will be rejected.