Copyright Security (unremovable)

Hello!
As always, when i need something i don't find anywhere i come to this forum.
I am thinking on releasing a WP theme made by me but i wouldn't like people to remove the copyright.
So i need a way to make a copyright unremovable; if someone quits it the wordpress theme does not work anymore or the whole page falls down or something alike.

I know that when you have a WP theme you can edit it completely so i think there is not an 100% infallible method but ¿Does somebody know how to do this or at least to simulate it? Things are always possible and i am convinced we can do this one way or another...

Copyright is based on law, not technical requirements.

If you give someone the code, they can modify the code in any way they would like, assuming they understand it.

You have three options:

1. Do nothing. Hope they are respectful. (Not 100% reliable, but the best option in the end.)

2. Make it confusing. Experienced coders will be able to remove it, but some people will be confused and not know how.

3. Make it required by another part of the script. This just means they'll need to remove both.

As an example, many forum packages have a copyright notice that is required. They hide it (2) and they also make it required/checked by another part of the script (3). I have figured out how to remove it (I was curious) without much trouble. I didn't remove it, because it was required by the TOS and copyright law (1).

One effective way to do this is to patrol the internet to check for offenders. You can threaten this on the website though. Of course you need to actually be able to do that. So you can search for your theme on Google (is there some identifying feature?) and see if you find anyone who has violated that.

One idea would be to try to get everyone to register with you when they install it. Then you'd at least know who has it and which websites to check.


In the end, I don't recommend trying this. Use the law if needed.

+1; not worth it. Just be clear about the terms under which you provide the theme: attribution required.

If you are bound and determined, then I agree that registration (maybe even unique ids) is the way to go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by djr33

Copyright is based on law, not technical requirements.

If you give someone the code, they can modify the code in any way they would like, assuming they understand it.

You have three options:

1. Do nothing. Hope they are respectful. (Not 100% reliable, but the best option in the end.)

2. Make it confusing. Experienced coders will be able to remove it, but some people will be confused and not know how.

3. Make it required by another part of the script. This just means they'll need to remove both.

As an example, many forum packages have a copyright notice that is required. They hide it (2) and they also make it required/checked by another part of the script (3). I have figured out how to remove it (I was curious) without much trouble. I didn't remove it, because it was required by the TOS and copyright law (1).

One effective way to do this is to patrol the internet to check for offenders. You can threaten this on the website though. Of course you need to actually be able to do that. So you can search for your theme on Google (is there some identifying feature?) and see if you find anyone who has violated that.

One idea would be to try to get everyone to register with you when they install it. Then you'd at least know who has it and which websites to check.


In the end, I don't recommend trying this. Use the law if needed.

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There is many people using these kind of themes, i would had to be someone with quite guts to use law against more than 100 people that im sure will use the theme, so i am not in the mood for that, maybe i am not that serious... but not saying it is not the best way to go.
For now i want to go with "They hide it (2) and they also make it required/checked by another part of the script (3)".
How can i do this?

1. Make your code complicated. (Forum software, for example, spans many PHP files and doesn't have an obvious roadmap.)
2. In some other unrelated place, check whether there's content including "copyright ..." that has been output on the page.

It's really a bad idea to do it that way, but it's up to you.

In short: that's live. Don't make themes. Or make them. But either way, don't worry about this. You really can't "solve" it.

Quote:

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i would had to be someone with quite guts to use law against more than 100 people that im sure will use the theme

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No, not at all. Copyright law is established for this purpose. MOST users won't try to violate your terms. Some will. And in those cases a clear note by email will be helpful some of the time. It's very hard to actually go after someone for damages, but you can bother them, contact their ISP and so forth. In the end, it really depends on how much this actually matters to you.