1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

Attention to all the wordpress theme designers / link buyers

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by Lorelei, Jun 12, 2008.

  1. Gigacore

    Gigacore Active Member

    Messages:
    359
    Likes Received:
    18
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    60
    #21
    there is no such options to delete our themes on blogstheme or in wordpresstemplates.name. And we can't even submit themes to wordpresstemplates.name! they just publish each every themes we people release on other sites :(
     
    Gigacore, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  2. jinsona

    jinsona Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,066
    Likes Received:
    93
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    140
    #22
    Just last month I got all my themes deleted from wordpresstemplates.name. Since then he takes care not to list my themes there.. But I can see almost all the latest themes from other designers there..
     
    jinsona, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  3. Gigacore

    Gigacore Active Member

    Messages:
    359
    Likes Received:
    18
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    60
    #23
    one of the ToS of blogstheme says:

    Which means, they can place their own links in our themes (which they should not do in the first place). It also says "keeping the rest of the theme unchanged". - but they just replace the original sponsor's link with their own. Which means, they are violating their own ToS!

    This term of condition is appearantly placed at the bottom, so they assume no one will scroll down and read it! Very nasty ppl!
     
    Gigacore, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  4. jinsona

    jinsona Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,066
    Likes Received:
    93
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    140
    #24
    This applies to themes uploaded by users. In this case they themselves upload the theme and add the links..
     
    jinsona, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  5. Lorelei

    Lorelei Notable Member

    Messages:
    1,789
    Likes Received:
    166
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    #25
    First of all, I read it now, and they say "Link", not "Links".

    Second, you have to acknowledge that when uploading, aka 'agree to their terms', but in my case, I didn't upload anything so i didn't agree to that in the first place.

    I bet when they will finally get back to me they will claim that someone uploaded it from my name, which like i said already will be a total bulls**t, as these are the links they promote on their website themselves!

    Oh and I just noticed that the "theme of the month" was JUST replaced, its no longer my modern magic (has the month ended so quickly)? and if he has the time to update his website in the meantime, i very much hope he will spare a minute to answer my email.
     
    Lorelei, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  6. Arcanus

    Arcanus Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,021
    Likes Received:
    31
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    160
    #26
    green rep+ ~Thanks for the timely advice.I'll be selling sponsorship links in my own templates soon. It's good to know that this can happen so i can keep my eye out.
    Are there any other scammer sites like this?

    that sucks your themes have been ripped and "vandalised".
    I'll pay attention next before i download something.
    btw,modern magic is a beautiful theme..i remember downloading it once..although not sure which freesite i did..havent used it anywhere. I'll go through my harddrives and dig it up and check the footers and delete if i find bad links.
     
    Arcanus, Jun 12, 2008 IP
    Lorelei likes this.
  7. srik79

    srik79 Active Member

    Messages:
    915
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    70
    #27
    hi, how did you get them to remove your themes?
     
    srik79, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  8. Lorelei

    Lorelei Notable Member

    Messages:
    1,789
    Likes Received:
    166
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    #28
    ok, just got a response from blogstheme.com...

     
    Lorelei, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  9. dulcenegosyante

    dulcenegosyante Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    900
    Likes Received:
    35
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    150
    #29
    Good to hear that. I will be giving them a "love" letter in awhile. (*sarcasm on the side*)
     
    dulcenegosyante, Jun 12, 2008 IP
    Lorelei likes this.
  10. HPA

    HPA Notable Member

    Messages:
    1,335
    Likes Received:
    63
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    #30
    OMG! Pathetic! :mad: :mad:
    I'll have my themes taken off right away.
     
    HPA, Jun 12, 2008 IP
    Lorelei likes this.
  11. zinruss

    zinruss Notable Member

    Messages:
    3,288
    Likes Received:
    237
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    270
    #31
    Lorelei, i fully undertand the hint but to be honest, there is not much that we can do. The best shot is contact their host and request for theme removal or account termination. I succesfully terminate a few accounts ( someone rip my themes, remove the footer credits and resell it to their clients). Btw, this is not the best solution because some host even don't care about copyright violation or maybe the "thief" own a dedicated server.

    Therefore, i have a discussion with my sponsors and partners 1-2 weeks ago and i bought this domain - stolenthemes.com. This site will be ads free and the main objective is to help designers to claim back their artwork and help sponsors to keep an eye on scammers. Site will be officially launch on 25 of this month or 6 of july. 4 high authority sites ( pr6 and above ) promise will offer a FREE backlinks to this new born baby.

    Here come to another question. Footer link encription. To be honest, footer link encription does not guaranteed anything. Senior webmasters ( don't get me wrong, i am not pointing my finger to anyone here ) can encode the file within 30 seconds if he/she have some basic knowledge in css, php etc. My partner already aware of this few months ago and therefore, part of my themes is without footer link encription ( good webmasters/blog owner usually will give credit to designers ). Alternative solution is call back function to designer's host but usually blog owners don't like it or may think it is a virus or something.

    In short, there is nothing much that we can do if blog owners refuse to keep the footer credits but there is something that we can do if they claim something they have no relations to. :)
     
    zinruss, Jun 12, 2008 IP
    Lorelei likes this.
  12. Creative_illusion

    Creative_illusion Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,696
    Likes Received:
    103
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    175
    Digital Goods:
    2
    #32
    I just finished compiling all my themes that has been active at (blogstheme).com and re-upload it to my server to find out what changes has been made and checked the styles.css and whatsoever. So far only 8 of my themes has been submitted by (unknown) scammer at the said site and out 8 themes only 3 themes has been ripped. I filed for removal of my themes via "contact us" and hope to hear from them as soon as possible and grant my request. I wonder when this scam become operational? They ripped $'s from our sponsors and give no respect to the us (theme designer). This is bu||shi+... it's against our ToS..
     
    Creative_illusion, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  13. slayer

    slayer Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,926
    Likes Received:
    85
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    165
    #33
    i don't have any themes there, but if i would have i'd probably get my lawyer on the job
     
    slayer, Jun 12, 2008 IP
  14. rsuog

    rsuog Peon

    Messages:
    1,045
    Likes Received:
    97
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #34
    All my wordpress themes also appeared on that site....with lots of illegal links in the footer!!! This is just terrible and so unfair...

    Let me look closer at the site software, maybe we can do something about it ;)
     
    rsuog, Jun 13, 2008 IP
  15. sar420

    sar420 Notable Member

    Messages:
    3,147
    Likes Received:
    212
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    230
    #35
    Something needs to be done about this. That site has to shut down. Perhaps we should write to Matt Cutts about this SPAM!
     
    sar420, Jun 13, 2008 IP
  16. chandan123

    chandan123 Prominent Member

    Messages:
    11,586
    Likes Received:
    578
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    360
    #36
    removing that site from google index pages is only the solution ;)
     
    chandan123, Jun 13, 2008 IP
  17. mikey1090

    mikey1090 Moderator Staff

    Messages:
    15,869
    Likes Received:
    1,055
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    445
    Digital Goods:
    2
    #37
    Firstly Matt Cutts disapproves of WP themes for building links. He may find it amusing.

    Secondly, google are happy to keep racial sites, warez etc in the SERPs, so why remove a wordpress themes site?
     
    mikey1090, Jun 14, 2008 IP
  18. Lorelei

    Lorelei Notable Member

    Messages:
    1,789
    Likes Received:
    166
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    #38
    Right now, I have all my themes removed from both websites, blogstheme.com removed them all and the other one replaced the links with the ones from my website so i believe if every one will email them and demand the same we can save at least our themes.

    Who else contacted them? Cos looks like tons of themes by the designers from here (Kate, zinruss, voidix, andrej etc) are still up there.

    I also noticed that after emailing blogsthemes, the newly added wp themes dont have poker links...

    I think complaining to matt cutts about our sponsored links being removed would be quite an unwise move.. :D

    Maybe to report them to www.stopbadware.org ? I had my blog (toptut.com) reported there once, I believe they didnt even check cos they just blacklisted my site in google for distributing viruses, which was a total non-sense..
     
    Lorelei, Jun 14, 2008 IP
  19. zinruss

    zinruss Notable Member

    Messages:
    3,288
    Likes Received:
    237
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    270
    #39
    I got all my themes removed from both sites. :)

    http://wordpresstemplates.name/e-cash-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/depression-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/de-stress-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/i-race-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/core-of-the-web-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/principles-of-personal-achievement-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/maidens-of-heavenly-mountain-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/streamac-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/protegidas-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/recipe-for-entrepreneur-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/timeless-perceptions-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/miracles-with-paws-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/paradise-cove-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/hidden-sky-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/vintagebleau-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/echo-of-souls-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/the-god-of-frolic-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/the-relief-in-music-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/secular-sanctuary-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/intellectual-avenue-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/i-chat-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/i-want-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/accelerator-plus-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/foundations-of-beauty-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/wealth-of-nature-free-wordpress-template/
    http://wordpresstemplates.name/mirror-or-the-painter-free-wordpress-template/
    
    Code (markup):
     
    zinruss, Jun 15, 2008 IP
  20. pixeladd

    pixeladd Banned

    Messages:
    2,238
    Likes Received:
    93
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #40
    can anything be done about footer encryption? like making it stronger
    the average blogger wont bother with them but if the theme has already been ripped before it was downloaded then theres a problem
    Is it common place for the theme site to put the own link on the design that had been submitted?

    I am just starting a theme site but plan to mainly use only themes i have full rights to so i can keep a track of my themes

    Also could a small piece of code be inserted into the theme so you could search all sites using your theme and check the links?
     
    pixeladd, Jun 15, 2008 IP