Phoenix has posted 3 downloads of TCD addons without my permission. TCD_Aquarium, TCD_Quake4, and ThemeCP. I would like these themes removed immediately because he's modified and redistributed them without permission. The intended licenses granted with those addons is for porting to other cms's. Not upgrading for Dragonfly and definitely not distribution without permission.

If people want theses TCD addons that bad then I'll host the few that people really want such as ThemeCP. In no way is any site allowed to host TCD free addons from now on. It's too much hassle with version mismatches and keeping things updated. Plus, I've dropped support for most of the addons completely and that's something at my discretion not Phoenix's or anyone else's.

I would have sent a private message to nano about this however Phoenix denied my ability to send private messages here.

The themes are GPL licensed and the majority of the code is actually DragonflyCMS code. The add-on is also GPL and was not originally yours to dictate any variation from that.

There is no such distribution limitation as the one you just invented under that license, so they remain.

Since you have dropped support, we are quite entitled to maintain support for them here, and we will continue to maintain support for any addons and themes that we see necessary to provide support for DragonflyCMS users.

Your PM privileges were revoked due to the abusive PMS I received from you.

such a shame to see things come to this

amazing....

I can't even believe you would make such a claim. Quake 4 and ThemeCP are ports. However, I received permission to port them. You did not get permission from the originating authors or myself. You didn't even attempt it. If you want to port them be my guest. ThemeCP and Quake 4 are still freely available for phpnuke. Port them.

TCD_Aquarium is an original theme of my own graphics and code based on the 8.2 cpgnuke theme. I was well within my rights to create and distribute my themes. No one ever said the themes I was creating were the property of DragonflyCMS regardless of what I did to them. You can be sure that you won't have any theme designer creating anything for this cms if that's the case. Use some common sense.

It's because of things like this why I sent you abusive pm's and why I no longer support this CMS. Your actions send a toxic message to all of DragonflyCMS's user base. It's not proper, it's not ethical, and I highly doubt Maze or any other developer here would condone such behavior. At least I would hope not.

I do not want to cause a conflict here. I would appreciate it if you would just comply with my request and be done with it instead of arguing why you think you have some entitlement to my work.

Who explicitly said they are property of Dragonfly CMS?

If the themes are distributed using GPL without any aknowledgement regarding the theme images then the full GPL applies to that theme.
In this case everyone is free to use, redistribute and modify anything from the theme.

In case of license infrigements the images should have been distributed seperatly from the GPL packed files since everything inside a GPL distribution is bound to the GPL.

If someone still doesn't understand what i'm saying, they should contact the OpenSource Foundation.

Oh so TCD_Aquarium isn't my property? It's the property of the GPL since I didn't attach some kind of license to it. It has the TCD name attached to it, it has TCD screenshots coupled with the theme, it clearly shows that this was my creation. As my creation I can say who can and cannot use it. I'll say ok to Quake 4 and ThemeCP. Use em all you want. This cms will get no more addons from me though. You people are like wolves devouring my stuff after I've pulled support. It's kind of flattering but more disturbing than anything else.

This is a petty thing to have to deal with. Why will you not just honor my request?

Off Topic but "almost" similar problem:

When I've registered to dfaddons.com user registration agreement said:

Quote::

As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent ...

Now dfaddons changed owner and the database went to cmsall.com which is registered under poison1, different site and different owner.

I've asked poison1 AND bigern to remove all my posts and my account ... still nothing.

Don't even want to tell what kind of excuse bigern comes up with ...

They can both face criminal and civil charges for abusing over 1000 users privacy.

Rules are Rules, Agreements are Agreements, GPL is GPL!

Honoring your request we can.
Shout, abuse and pointing fingers on first, we don't tolerate.

If a nice request was made we can, but we don't have to honor the request since the theme was distributed with GPL.

I have been in these discussions over and over again, that if someone distributes under a certain license he and everyone else is bound to that license.

Changing a license you may, but all previous versions are still bound to the old license.

That's why many people get mad after a while when they hunger for more credit but don't receive it due to the fact that GPL allows redistribution and branching.

Sure i can understand why people want credit and didn't fully understand the GPL because the GPL is hard to understand.

Just ask in a friendly manor for removal including a good reason. Then people may respect and remove the download.
If they don't you may get angry or throw with monitors but you agreed with GPL and so did they.

[edit some links added]
ravenphpscripts.com/po...t-gpl.html
ravenphpscripts.com/po...t-gpl.html
ravenphpscripts.com/po...t-gpl.html
ravenphpscripts.com/po...t-gpl.html

I would have been happy to discuss this privately with you or nano however that ability was taken away from me by Phoenix after he clearly provoked me. I did not know he had admin ability and I guarantee had he not he wouldn't have spoken to me in an insulting way. At one time and I thought it still was that way he had his admin access removed. When that happened I didn't hear one word from him. The day he got admin back he was right back on my tail. I highly recommend he have it revoked again because he provokes other members here just so he can use his admin ability. That's all I'll say on why I wasn't able to maintain a line of dialog with you or nano peacefully on this issue. Instead I've basically been forced to air out a private message in public.

TCD addons have credits attached and I no longer want to provide support for them. If you want to modify the credits so that I am still given my due credit but also make notice that I do not provide support for these addons anymore that would be fine.

I would like WSG and any other potential theme designer to take very careful notice of this. I and they were definitely under the assumption that we owned our own work. It's obvious from reading your linked articles that I have absolutely no ownership of any free theme I produce. According to you and your articles I forfeit all ownership as soon as I release anything within the DragonflyCMS framework. I have no property rights whatsoever.I can lay claim to images but they have to be packaged and sold separately from the code. That makes absolutely no sense and I would have never ever released anything had I known that and if that's the real spirit of the GPL.

So go ahead and take all of my hard work and put it your downloads as imminent domain in the name of Dragonfly. I will never again contribute to any GPL based project and will make darn sure every coder out there knows what GPL is really about.

It's like throwing pennies down a well. As soon as you release it you'll never be able to claim ownership of it again.

Having a license like that would stifle any motivation to release anything. Apparently GPL is the best thing since sliced bread as long as you are the one controlling the project. You get it all. Yeah that's super nice.

So I've made a simple request and I get licenses thrown back in my face. Instead of honoring a simple request we've gone through a tirade of the GPL and legalities? I really hope everyone gets a chance to see this so they don't contribute anything. The only way not to keep something as GPL is not to let anyone have it. That's the only way... and that's not conducive to a community based project such as a "community cms". In the end the GPL devours all and forgives no one foolish enough to enter it's doorway.

Notes taken devon

Regarding your opinion about GPL:

GPL means:
- free to distribute and edit for derivatives
- give credit where credit is due

This means anyone may use other people their stuff and help continuing to further develop the software. How else would Linux have been evolved that big?
As stated in all those links i've mentioned, GNU/GPL is not about proprietary but about sharing which means themes like yours can be downloaded anywhere.

If you don't like giving support you don't have to, there is no license stating that you must.


So will note that no support will be given by you and redirect support to our forums for now.
ok?

Sounds fine with me though your saying I don't have a choice in the matter anyway. I polite way of saying eat it. I now know the nature of GPL. My guess is this is exactly why mTek and others have left cms's never to return. I wasn't the first and definitely won't be the last to fall into this trap created specifically for developers by code greedy developers.

The most frustrating thing about this is that no one ever said anything about this. No one said "Hey Dev you did know that wicked theme you just made is no longer yours right?" I recommend that you add a custom field to your download section that says "Property Owner:" and fill every field with "GPL". It's probably the most efficient and visible way that module and theme developers will take notice. Maybe then people will see the significance of their contribution.

Sorry but you seriously need to learn whats GPL code its all about.

Well, Mr Devon - I previously left DF of my own accord, but don't let the facts stand in the way of your story. I also kept my reasons private out of respect for DJMaze and made no statements anywhere during that period.

You know very well what GPL is about - it can be seen in some old posts at DFaddons on that subject where you also confess to having stripped credits in your "early" days - mind you, you stripped akamu's credits from the fiblack3d theme he ported and replaced them with yours and no acknowledgement of akamu when you made your TCD version - yours even has the same exact errors, with themecp tacked on.

You were also involved in the early days of nexos when it was to be a fork of Dragonfly so you knew that GPL allows you do pretty much whatever you want, provided you retain credits - you are misinforming the general DF public to make yourself look good and make DF the bad guys, a tactic you have repeatedly used in the past to build yourself up.

It is sad that someone with an obvious flair and talent for graphics should feel the need to resort to attacking others in order to present himself as a pseudo expert in other areas where his knowledge is lower.

You contribution of free themes to the community was and is appreciated, and is fair, given the amount of money you have made from selling themes and services to clients who are using the GPL DragonflyCMS portal. A very wise old man once told me "never forget your roots" - cast your eye back over all your early posts here and all the help that was given freely to you.

Yes, Phoenix I did that. It was one of my first ports as you know. No one said anything to me about it and had something been said it would have fixed it. I am willing to fix my mistakes and that makes me a good honest coder. This is another example of you or anyone else not telling me the acceptable way to do things a long time ago. I had to figure it out on my own which is fine. But you going back through all of my old posts to find some kind of wrong doing is just more of the same. You are and always have been on my case.

I asked you before you removed my pm ability to never again post in any topic I create. You do nothing but give me grief or insult me. I would much rather discuss this with DJ Maze. I actually enjoy my conversations with him because he doesn't insult me within every paragraph.

Despite what Phoenix thinks Nexos is not based on nor has any coding from DragonflyCMS.

Maze, it's because we put in hundreds or thousands of hours to create some elaborate module. That kind of workmanship should be rewarded not ripped away. Support can be found here or other places for free. Why would a developer want to not own their work, be burdened with supporting it, not be rewarded, and put up with potential abusive community members that do not value it?

As you can see from everything in every post written in this topic; it is not in any developers best interest to contribute here or to any GPL project. GPL doesn't help progression or growth of a project. It hinders it.