Being original…
When you are about to start your own blog and when you are looking for a blog theme, one of the easiest ways is of course to browse Google or the wordpress theme viewer if you are using Wordpress, and you can find dozens of themes in no time. However, you will agree that it is not always the best way to get an original layout: most of these themes you are going to find are already used around Internet, and your blog may not be as attractive as you first thought.I would consequently advise everybody to look for other ways to get your own theme…
Some of us consequently choos to turn to Premium themes. Their price is sometimes so expensive that most bloggers will not afford to pay so much and this theme will consequently stay rare on the Internet. It could be a great catch then!
In my opinion even when the prices stay really low like in the Themes Club Small Potato is starting in 2008, you have already get a quite rare theme, that you will not find everywhere later. Do not hesitate then! What you will be able to find in Small Potato’s Themes club for 5$-a year does worth it!
The last solution is the one I chose: designing your own theme. Of course that option requires a bit more time and work than the others (considering that you would find your future theme easily), but unless your theme gets copied you will never find anywhere else.
If I am speaking about plagiarism here, it is because this will surely happen one day if your day is good enough. That is sad to say, but copying is the greatest form of flattery… It is actually happening today to one of the most famous magazine wordpress themes, Mimbo. His designer Darren Hoyt found out that the theme had been copied, renamed and distributed under the name of Brandfort magazine. The situation is getting a bit better now, as the ther theme has already been deleted by its owner, but this situation can happen.
Personnally, as this theme is still under development, I do not even hope to see it anywhere else, but the future posts here will hopefully help you to build a so great theme that everybody will want the same!
One of the strenghts of the WordPress universe is that people can take a theme (or several) adjust the things they like the most and add some own styling and features to build something “new”.
In the open source world we can only get to the next level if we do not invent the wheel over and over again. We should use the sources that are available and develop them in order to create on and on. Of course there´s a thin line between plagiatism and new creation but I think it´s common and regular practise to use existing elements to create something “new”.
That´s why I took the “core” of “mimbo” as a basis for my theme “BranfordMagazine” which is not only a stupid copy of “mimbo” but kind of an enhancement.
Please appologize my bad english, but I´m sure sure you got my point.
I understand your point of view. One of the advantages of the open source world is this availability and possibilty to develop and improve something others have created before. However every author has a right to protect his own work or at least should be recognized for what he has created.
That was more the problem of Darren I think. If one work is displayed with another name, without enough changes to be considered as something new then the credit must go to its original author I think. When that is done correctly then there is no problem showing your work.
And of course working on other themes like you did is a great way to improve your knowledge. I do it a lot myself. By going through code you get to know Wordpress and its possibilities a bit better every time. Keep going!
[…] of them exists for a few weeks now and has raised a polemic (we have spoken about it here), it is Brandford magazine. The problem is now over as the two main wordpress designers of Mimbo […]