One of the most fruitful places for developers to showcase their skills is in the WordPress ecosystem. After all, WordPress is one of the most widely-used content management systems (CMS) in the world, providing significant opportunities for developers to create original themes and plugins.

One critical aspect of developing original WordPress themes and plugins is putting the correct legal safeguards in place. This ensures your original work is not used without authorization, and without rightful compensation. The question is, what do WordPress developers need to know about copyrighting and licensing their themes and plugins?

Why are Copyrighting and Licensing Important?

To begin with, it might be helpful to cover some of the central reasons why copyrights and licensing matter so much for WordPress developers. There are several reasons to use these protections to shore up original themes and plugins:

It Protects Your Intellectual Property

We’ll start with the most obvious benefit: When you invest your time, talent, and resources into developing original themes and plugins, you deserve full control over how those themes and plugins are used. Copyrights and licensing are both tools for preventing the unauthorized distribution or use of your original work.

Licensing Allows You to Set User Permissions

Another benefit to using licenses is that it makes it possible for you to determine the extent to which your users are allowed to modify or redistribute your work. Different types of licenses can bestow varied user permissions, which not only protects your rights as a creator but can also provide greater clarity to your users.

Licensing Can Ensure a Better Product

Believe it or not, licensing your theme or plugin can actually be an important form of quality control, too. That’s because the licensing process usually requires third-party review, ensuring that the final product is not only functional but also secure. Again, this can be a boon to creators and end users alike.

Copyrights and Licenses Establish Trust

Finally, licensed or copyrighted themes and plugins help to cultivate trust within the WordPress community. That’s because most users are far more likely to adopt products that are bound by copyright and licensing norms.

Copyrights and Licensing for WordPress Themes and Plugins: Best Practices

These are just a few of the reasons for developers to pursue copyrights and licenses for their WordPress themes and plugins. Now we come to the question of how. Consider a few best practices.

Establish Legal Safeguards

If you are going into business creating licensed WordPress products with a commercial intent, you will likely wish to establish a sound legal business structure. For most entrepreneurs, the best option here is the Limited Liability Company, or LLC. The LLC structure will shield you from legal liability, should some licensing or copyright dispute ever arise.

The specific steps for establishing an LLC can vary from state to state, and it’s always best to research specific guidelines, e.g., how to form an LLC in Wyoming. Generally speaking, the process involves finding a Registered Agent, filing Articles of Organization, paying the state filing fee, and crafting an Operating Agreement.

Make Sure You Choose the Right License

First, understand that there are a couple of different licensing options available within the WordPress ecosystem… each with different benefits and intentions.

• GNU General Public License (GPL). Very common among WordPress developers, GPL allows users to modify and redistribute the plugin or theme. It requires any derivatives to remain open-source.
• Commercial Licenses. For premium themes and plugins, commercial licenses curtail redistribution and modification rights. Basically, they allow users to pay for a theme or plugin to use only for their personal or commercial project.

Always Include Licensing Information

When you choose to license a theme or plugin, you must make that clear to any potential users. Generally, this means outlining the licensing terms within the software itself. A license.txt file is the most typical approach.

Additionally, it’s considered standard practice to include a copyright notice, along with the year and your name, at the top of your main files.

Maintain Documentation

Another crucial aspect of copyrighting and licensing your work is maintaining thorough documentation.

This documentation should explain how users should use your theme or plugin, along with any limitations implied by the licensing agreement.

If you choose a license where users can redistribute or modify your work, make sure your documentation specifies how you wish them to credit you.

Keep Your Licensing Information Up to Date

Over time, you may decide that you wish to revise or update your licensing terms in some way. That’s well within your rights as a creator. All you need to do is ensure that you communicate any changes to your users.

In addition to direct communication with current users, also be sure you update the documentation included with your themes or plugins.

Additional Tips for Copyrights and Licenses

A few additional pointers for WordPress developers to keep in mind include:

• Use copyrights not only to protect your intellectual property, but also to safeguard your branding assets, such as your logo and business name.
• Be vigilant about monitoring for unauthorized use of your work, and be ready to enforce copyrights or licensing terms as needed.
• Track your changes and iterations using a version control system. This helps validate your ownership by documenting the evolution of your work over time.

These are just a few important ways to ensure you’re using copyrights and licenses as effectively as possible.

Protect Your Original Work on WordPress

For developers and creatives, WordPress offers boundless opportunity. As you take advantage of those opportunities, ensure that you’re also establishing the right precautions, protecting your original work using copyrights and licensing. This is an essential way to ensure your ingenuity is respected throughout the WordPress ecosystem.

Author Bio

Amanda E. Clark  is a contributing writer to LLC University. She has appeared as a subject matter expert on panels about content and social media marketing, and she writes regularly on topics related to small business leadership.