Hi, I had a lot of themes recently which footers are decoded and in the theme they are saying that you must leave footer intact. And I checked this post here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/250248 If I get this right I can change any footer on any theme if I installed it on my server ?
if you get right from theme author I think this is fine. When it is legal in every situation there's no purpose to sponsor wp themes.
What if there is nowhere in the theme writen that I dont have the rights to change the footer ? Can I change it ? If it comes to the fact that I brake the rights what are the consequences in most cases ? I would like to ask the same for articles ...
when theme author or sponsor see you removed footer links they could email your hosting provider. Why do you want to remove footer? Isn't better to give some credits to designer and sponsors?