So this really hasn’t been much of an issue, but I wanted to put this out there before it might become one.
Anyway, it is perfectly fine for developers to create themes that utilize Sports Bench. Despite being a premium plugin, it’s released under the GNU General Public License. That means you, the end user, have the freedom to use it however you want.
That includes creating premium themes that utilize Sports Bench. You can sell them on ThemeForest, Mojo Marketplace, Codester, on your own site or anywhere. And if you want, you can let me know about it and I can publicize it here.
However, with great power comes great responsibility, and there’s one requirement and a couple of guidelines that you need to follow.
First off, you cannot include any of the original Sports Bench source code in your theme. If people are going to use your theme as a sports website they’ll need to buy Sports Bench from me. The only exception to this is if you need to modify a function. In that case you can copy the function into your theme and make the alterations. But that’s it. Mostly, just use common sense. You wouldn’t want people copying your plugin, so don’t do it to others.
Also, your theme should adhere to the WordPress theme guidelines. If you’re not familiar with them, you can find them here. Essentially, make sure your code is well written and that it doesn’t throw any errors. And while design isn’t my (or WordPress’) biggest concern, at least make sure it looks nice.
Finally, your theme shouldn’t have any malicious code or malware in it. Don’t be a jerk and trick people. There are so many things ethically wrong with that.
But that’s it. Just follow those guidelines and you’ll be golden. Feel free to go crazy with it. Personally, I love to see stuff I’ve built and put their own take on it. It makes what I do fun and interesting. And like I said before, feel free to shoot me an email with your Sports Bench theme and I’ll put it up here for others to see.
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