hi, i was wondering if removing the author's signature from a template is illegal. the template is free from simplemachines.org and i would like to remove the signature. thanks!
It depends what the licence says. Even if you can remove the authors name and link, you shouldn't. It's a bit unfair to take advantage of someone hard work and not give them credit for it.
It depends on the license, but, even if you do remove his name, I doubt you will get into much trouble.
While there may not be any repercussions, I can tell you as a theme maker that if people remove my links, they can f*ck off and I'll just stop releasing them for free. At that point they are violating my licensing and using the theme against my terms. Most of my themes and templates take at least 6 hours to make, but some have taken as long as two months to perfect. That's a lot of time, especially when the only condition is a backlink. C'mon. Seriously, are people that selfish that they can't leave a simple link, which costs you absolutely no time or effort to leave on the theme, in order to thank someone for their hardwork?[/rant] Anyway, if it's that big of a deal, why not ask the author himself/herself. Prehaps you'd rather pay for the removal of the link, than to pay in the form of keeping the link itself.
I am a little short on money right now but I would pay the author. I'm even thinking about contacting the author for custom templates since I like his work so much.
Do not remove the links. It is wrong. It is stealing! It is the price of the work. If you don't like the price, don't use the product!
Agree, is all about license, as in example check this layout out, clearly stating that no copyrights apply: http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/exp/nausicaa/index.html
Well just ask the person who made the template, if he finds out he could get like take you to court ( doubt it ), but there again he would have to give solid evidence that he made the template / times / dates.
I agree, make the link smaller or move it to the side of the page or whatever but dont shit on someone like that after they provided you with a free template that took hours for them to make.
i would say that if you use free template from any site and if it has signature on it,then never remove it. but if you used that free template to create a new template or you modded it heavily then you can remove the signature. but then also it is advisable to refer to the main author.
Usually it can be removed for a very small fee. Pay that and you'll be free to use it without links. The fee is sometimes as low as 5$, so it can screw your finances that much. You can always offer some other service in exchange for that, at no cost for you. So, if broke, be creative, but not unfair! What would you think if you were the creator of the template?
I think its polite to keep the link up, especially when you're getting a freebie. I usually negotiate to pay them a certain fee if I want to remove it.
Paying fee will make you feel good, and you could use the template with full satisfaction without anything in your heart and mind.