Hi everyone,
Just to let you know, we have decided that all themes in our themes database should offered under the GNU General Public License, the same as Moodle. Any themes currently listed in the database as having a different license have been temporarily hidden, and I have emailed the theme authors. Hopefully, many theme authors will decide that their theme can be offered under GPL, then their entry in the themes database can be re-approved/unhidden.
If you have a Moodle theme which you'd like to share under GPL, in addition to including it in our themes database, please consider making use of Moodle's CVS for storing your code and the Moodle Tracker for maintaining and refining it. Please see our documentation Development:Guidelines for contributed code for more details.
Hello Helen,
I have unhidden the two themes that weren't GNU and reworded some of my descriptions to make them more GNU friendly. I don't have a problem offering them as such.
I will be working on getting more of my themes into CVS this summer when I have more time to work on such things.
Also, that took out a lot of themes, and imagine it will now be pretty confusing to approve future themes. How long will we keep them hidden before completely getting rid of them?
I have unhidden the two themes that weren't GNU and reworded some of my descriptions to make them more GNU friendly. I don't have a problem offering them as such.
I will be working on getting more of my themes into CVS this summer when I have more time to work on such things.
Also, that took out a lot of themes, and imagine it will now be pretty confusing to approve future themes. How long will we keep them hidden before completely getting rid of them?
Perhaps the easiest way to sort this would be to require that all submitted themes include a plain text licence file that confirms that the theme licence is GPL (as all Moodle Themes surely must be).
That explicit self-declaration by the author would remove the responsibility of moderators to make judgements regarding the licence.
Hmmmm, this would require that the theme files would need to be lodged at Moodle.org. Perhaps this is the only way to stop themes being declared as GPL at Moodle.org but available on a different basis at the author's download site.
That explicit self-declaration by the author would remove the responsibility of moderators to make judgements regarding the licence.
Hmmmm, this would require that the theme files would need to be lodged at Moodle.org. Perhaps this is the only way to stop themes being declared as GPL at Moodle.org but available on a different basis at the author's download site.
Patrick, thanks for changing your theme descriptions and offering them under GPL. 
Regarding themes with a different licence which have been hidden, I was thinking of giving the theme authors a month to decide, then if necessary emailing them once more before deleting the themes database entry.
Regarding licence confirmation, I've updated the themes database add entry form and added the sentence:
"Please note that all entries to the themes database are considered to be released under the GNU General Public License."
Hopefully this is sufficient, together with the GPL statement in the moodle.org page footer.
Regarding themes with a different licence which have been hidden, I was thinking of giving the theme authors a month to decide, then if necessary emailing them once more before deleting the themes database entry.
Regarding licence confirmation, I've updated the themes database add entry form and added the sentence:
"Please note that all entries to the themes database are considered to be released under the GNU General Public License."
Hopefully this is sufficient, together with the GPL statement in the moodle.org page footer.
I think that the sentence is very clear. Thank you.