Update on February 17, 2018: It seems the list of themes that require activation before installing is increasing and I will keep updating my list regularly.
Recently I noticed that a lot of theme authors would force you to activate your theme before being able to properly install it or even install the demo content that comes with the theme, and here is an example of that I saw recently from with the following two themes:
Eduma Theme:
Impreza Theme:
Avada Theme:
The Gem Theme:
I wonder how do you see this step and do you feel theme authors have the right to do that or should this be an optional step?
Would love to hear your feedback on this and where you think this is going to be a standard practice in the near future.
Please, comment below and share your opinion with this step.
2 Responses
In a sense, this is a direct violation of GPL. In GPL you can’t restrict user, to use your GPL functionality based on his membership and license status. This means if your license expire you probably can’t use that solution, if this is entirely hosted solution, like any theme should be, this is direct violation. If they package some plugin and other templates that download from their server they could restrict that. I am not a lawyer, just talking from experience and basic sense. I understand that from Theme Developer’s point (which I am not, but could feel as product developer), but its bad user experience, They could restrict use when they ask for support, they have right to check license there, but not blocking the code.
M ASIF RAHMAN, thanks for sharing your insight on that. It’s an interesting point of view that I haven’t thought of.
I kind of see what they might be thinking and how they’re trying to protect their interests but I agree there could be better ways to do that without creating a bad user experience.