I have a hosting client who does custom and commercial themes for an open source content management system.

While the open source falls under the GNU/GPL, graphic designs and themes have not been considered to fall under the same guidelines. Or are we mistaken.

Recently an unscrupulous website owner has managed to get a hold of all his commercial themes, convert them to 2 other versions of this open source CMS, and place them in his own download section for subscribers for a flat $20 subscription to all commercial theme downloads he has in his database.

My questions are these:

1 - Are themes designed to go with an open source?

They are distributed completely separate from the CMS and without additional modifications to the actual open source code.

2 - How would one go about getting this unscrupulous individual to remove the theme designs that others have created for profit from his website?

He apparently knows he is breaking the law as he has edited my client's post and banned him from the website. The edited post does not reflect any material relating to the ripping of the themes, but that the site provides great content. To this extent my client is very upset and is seeking legal advice.

3. Are there any other legal issues that need to be addressed with this case?