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#themereview

KafleG 4:26 am on November 29, 2018
Tags: themereview ( 61 )

Pexels Images are allowed( Only CCO License)

UPDATE: Based on the discussion on the Theme Review Team, CCO License of Pexels are allowed.

Starting from today Pexels is no longer allowed on themes and that this rule doesn’t apply retroactively.
Check the list of recommended website from where you can use images.

You can see some Restricted websites here.

Please leave a comment below if you have anything to say regarding this.

You can always join #themereview channel and ask your queries there.

kevinhaig 5:14 am on November 29, 2018

It makes no sense to me, that it is not retroactive.

I don’t think we need to systematically check all themes for Pexels images but authors should be informed that they are required to change them. Also if any reviewer takes the time to check themes and finds Pexels images, they should request they be changed and the author should be required to change them.

Let me ask this question : if use of Pexels images from this point on are not allowed because of possible license conflicts and litigation (the unsafe part). Why is it considered OK (safe) to allow these images retroactively. Are they not just as unsafe as the ones we are not allowing in the future?

Decisions on licensing conflicts need to be retroactive, in my opinion.
- Samuel Wood (Otto) 1:28 pm on November 29, 2018
  
  Kevin, you’re overthinking this.
  
  The reason for not allowing Pexels images is because their licensing is complicated. Their “free” license is not free enough to be GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. compatible. The “Pexels License” is not really a free license.
  
  So, having reviewers to spend their time verifying the license is kind of a waste of their time. It’s far easier to just say that the site is not a safe place to get images and leave it at that. It should not be the reviewers job to go above and beyond to verify things like licensing, when it’s much more valuable and useful for them to use their skills to help the authors create better themes. Verifying licensing is very literally a waste of their time, which is already quite limited to begin with.
  
  Theme authors are the ones choosing images, so we should tell them where images are safe to be obtained from. Pexels is not a safe place to obtain free images. Simple as that. Realistically, authors should use their own images, because that’s always safe. But if they’re going to obtain images from elsewhere, then we should tell them not to use these shady image aggregation sites, because you can never verify the licensing on them is safe for use.
  - kevinhaig 2:15 pm on November 29, 2018
    
    This is exactly why it should be retroactive. Grandfathering can get complicated. Dare I suggest you are under thinking this 🙂
  - kevinhaig 2:23 pm on November 29, 2018
    
    To simplify things, Pexels should be out….no grandfathering that would have to waste the time of reviewers in the future.
    
    Grandfathering licencing restrictions is ridiculous….see below.
    Now reviewers have to track dates and themes that were grandfathered…..just a silly waste of time.
acosmin 5:23 am on November 29, 2018

I got confirmation that it shouldn’t be applied retroactively… so that’s what we’re doing.
- kevinhaig 5:33 am on November 29, 2018
  
  Funny how we do things to simplify reviews, then end up complicating them even more. 😉
  
  When someone asks, “Why is that theme allowed to use Pexels images and I can’t ?”, the reviewer will have to first look up the retroactive cut off date, then they will have to check that the theme was grandfathered.
  
  Not a problem right now, but a year from now….
  
  Grandfathering is a bad practice.
  - Samuel Wood (Otto) 6:08 pm on November 29, 2018
    
    None of what you’re describing needs to be done at all. Allowing existing themes to continue to exist doesn’t require extra work, it requires less work.
    
    If a theme author asks why they can’t use an image, then the answer is because of the license.
    
    If you all want to ban pexels entirely, fine. My view is that you should just say “pexels images are not allowed because they usually have a non-compatible license on their images” and leave it at that.
    
    See, all of these “rules” are 100% flexible. If the theme reviewers and approvers decide that using a specific image is fine for a specific case, then that’s fine too.
    
    The purpose of having rules is to make you think before you break them.
dingo-d 12:11 pm on November 29, 2018

I don’t think that we can enforce the retroactivity on old images.

Say you downloaded an image from unsplash in 2016 when it was still CC0, and you didn’t update or change it in any way. It’s still CC0 in your theme, even though today unsplash has changed its license.

For GPL2 stuff there is an interesting read here: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/sep/26/GPLv2-irrevocability/
- kevinhaig 2:18 pm on November 29, 2018
  
  Sure you can enforce it. Just do it.
Fahim Murshed 12:14 pm on November 29, 2018

Thanks a lot. Glad to know this information.
mrwweb 5:44 pm on November 29, 2018

Could you share a bit more background on what’s wrong with the license? THat would be helpful to understand the decision.
- Samuel Wood (Otto) 6:00 pm on November 29, 2018
  
  The problem with the Pexels license is fairly clear:
  https://www.pexels.com/photo-license/
  
  Don’t sell unaltered copies of a photo, e.g. don’t sell it as a stock photo, poster, print or on a physical product without adding any value.
  
  Don’t redistribute or sell the photos on other stock photo or wallpaper platforms.
  
  Both of these make the license incompatible with the GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples., which we require for everything hosted on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/.
  
  Now, some are saying that they also have photos licensed using CC0, and that those could be used. Which is fine and true, but it seems like having the review team need to check that sort of thing is a lot of effort. If they want to put in that work, more power to them. I’d say just to avoid the using images from the site because of its non-free license instead. But that’s just me.

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