I made this

I need to rant for a bit.

So I write code in my free time, and not too long ago I released a theme for WordPress called Cover. I use it on my own website, and I’m pretty proud of it.

Not only is the theme available for free on the official WordPress.org theme repository, but I’ve put it on Github under the GPLv2 license, which encourages sharing improvements.

I recently discovered that someone has taken Cover’s source and reuploaded it under the name Coverflow (I love the originality) to the WordPress.org theme repository. Not a single mention of me or the code from which it originated.

I feel… I don’t know how I feel. Hurt, kinda. Stolen from, I guess. I mean, I didn’t want to charge anyone money. I wanted to put it out there because if it’s useful to me, then it could be useful to someone else. (It must be, it’s been downloaded over 3,000 times at this writing.) But if you’re gonna use it, at least give me some credit. From starting out to the most recent version, I’ve spent a year and a half building it, iterating on it, improving it.

I find it kind of appalling that someone would tag that as their own version 1.0. To take something they had literally nothing to do with and basically do this with it.

Rant done. Thanks for listening.

8 responses

  1. That sucks. Have you talked with the individual?

    1. You know, it’s funny. I left a comment on his blog, and he deleted it. But now his page’s line “built on top of Underscores” (which is straight from Cover’s readme) has been changed to “built on top of Cover,” with a link to Cover’s project page here.

    2. That is so bizarre. You would think the person may acknowledge you and respond.

    3. Did the theme get taken down?

    4. Mine or his? Mine is still there, actually in review for the 1.5.5 update. His is being reviewed.

    5. Aha. I was going to say, I couldn’t find Coverflow.

  2. Paul Shryock Avatar
    Paul Shryock

    I love that drawing you did. And theme-stealing is super lame. Did you report it to the powers that be?

    1. Haha, I didn’t draw that. I just found it on Imgur. And no, I didn’t report it. I don’t know that I could; Cover’s source is free for the taking, after all. I guess I’d just like some credit where credit is due, y’know?

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