Can you give an unused Wordpress theme to someone?

Catherine1

Active Member
This may sound like a dumb question but I can't find any straight answers anywhere. I want to know if it's ok to give a Wordpress theme that you bought but never used to someone else or if that's illegal or has some other reason why you can't do it.

I bought a Wordpress theme that I thought that I was going to use but decided not to use it. It's a non-refundable purchase so I have a friend that was saying that she would use it but I wanted to see if that's OK or not.

Any ideas on this?
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
I have never seen this asked before but you might be able to contact the support from the place where you bought the theme and tell them the situation and maybe they can transfer ownership to your friend.

If it was released under the GPL license then there should be no legal problems with giving it to your friend.

The worst case scenario is that you give it to your friend and he/she uses it but won't have the customer support that usually comes with paid themes.

I would contact the seller first though and ask them.
 

vishwa

Active Member
If you have a valid license for the theme than you can transfer the ownership to the other one. But make sure that it is permitted by the theme developer. Some theme developers does not allow to transfer ownership, so, just make sure before making any decision.
 

Dean

Well-Known Member
If it's one of the big Wordpress theme sellers then you might find the answer in their FAQ'a or Help sections as most of the bigger ones have a pretty good variety of things covered already.

You can also look at the licensing agreement because often things like this are mentioned in them.
 

Catherine1

Active Member
I have never seen this asked before but you might be able to contact the support from the place where you bought the theme and tell them the situation and maybe they can transfer ownership to your friend.

If it was released under the GPL license then there should be no legal problems with giving it to your friend.

The worst case scenario is that you give it to your friend and he/she uses it but won't have the customer support that usually comes with paid themes.

I would contact the seller first though and ask them.
I don't think that support would be a problem because they know more about Wordpress than me by far.

If you have a valid license for the theme than you can transfer the ownership to the other one. But make sure that it is permitted by the theme developer. Some theme developers does not allow to transfer ownership, so, just make sure before making any decision.
Yes it's a valid license but I just bought it but never used it. I was planning to use it but changed my mind and they don't offer refunds.

If it's one of the big Wordpress theme sellers then you might find the answer in their FAQ'a or Help sections as most of the bigger ones have a pretty good variety of things covered already.

You can also look at the licensing agreement because often things like this are mentioned in them.
I will check those. Thanks for sharing that piece of information.
 

ulterios

Well-Known Member
I don't think that support would be a problem because they know more about Wordpress than me by far.
Well if they aren't worried about support then there should be no problem.

I would still try to contact support and ask them about transferring the license to your friend but if they won't do it then just go for it since it's probably a GPL licensed theme anyway as most WordPress themes are.
 

Catherine1

Active Member
You may send the license to your friend or you can sell it. Since they don't refund the amount you may pass the license to others.
How do I pass the license to them? Do I just give them my account at the theme seller?

Well if they aren't worried about support then there should be no problem.

I would still try to contact support and ask them about transferring the license to your friend but if they won't do it then just go for it since it's probably a GPL licensed theme anyway as most WordPress themes are.
I was planning on maybe asking them through support if I don't find what I need here. I was a little afraid to ask them there though because I though it may reflect badly on me.
 

Catherine1

Active Member
If this possible than you should do that.
If I just remove my payment information and change the password to a new one that they can change then that should be OK don't you think?
 

Traveler

Active Member
I think that yo can give them away because of the type of license that Wordpress themes fall under. That's why there are so many of those websites that are reselling themes and plugins that they didn't develop. If you bought it and are not using it then I would give it away instead of having it go to waste.
 

JohnQ

Member
I was looking at the Wordpress license some time back and from what I read and understood there should be no problem with you giving it away. It's a Wordpress requirement for developers to use their platform. what you are usually paying for is just the support from the developer.
 

Will247

Member
Yeah you can give an unused theme to someone else, it's in the licensing agreement with wordpress that the developers have to go by.

You might not be able to pass along the support from the developer but you can ask them. If they say no then you can still usually get support elsewhere in help forums and places like that.
 

Maria Marketing

Active Member
If you have never used the theme yourself I think you should be able to send a message to the place where you bought the theme and tell them what you want to do.

I don't think they will have any problems since the new buyer might renew their term with them so they would get more money anyway.
 

Ellen F

Member
I was going to give one that I bought but never got around to using to a friend of mine but after contacting the support they said it was not allowed. Theme Forrest doesn't allow it FYI.

I guess that some allow it and some don't.
 

Catherine1

Active Member
I was going to give one that I bought but never got around to using to a friend of mine but after contacting the support they said it was not allowed. Theme Forrest doesn't allow it FYI.

I guess that some allow it and some don't.
After doing more research on the subject last year I found that most of them don't have a problem with you giving an unused theme to someone but the support doesn't transfer to the new user.
 

KeralMTG

Active Member
I think you can give a theme to someone else because they are gpl license. Some places sell premium themes cheap because of this so it should be fine to give one to someone else.
 
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