If I remove the footer links of my Wordpress theme (theme provided for free but it says footer links must be ketp), and the owner makes a complaint to the host what is the likely action by the hosting company?

Thank you

PS: I have no copyrighted content at all on the blog.

well, the template is copyrighted im sure, and as you have removed the links then you are breaching the terms of use, in my opinion that is just asking for trouble

As long as the templates were copyrighted; if the creator (owner, copyrighter) has placed a disclaimer or TOS that states the footer must remain intact; then you have removed them. yes, you are in violation and should comply to the DCMA.

As far as I can tell; you stated you have a theme that you added to your site; apparently the theme was free, but the footer link must remain. Now the theme owner has issued a DCMA; without being clear what the complaint is; assuming it is because of the removal of the link. A host is obligated to enforce the DMCA request; they should give you 24 hours to comply. If the host do not take action, (although I am not an attorney), I believe that they could be held accountable.

My 2 cents..

Another thing to consider is whether or not it is truly copyrighted. Anyone can slap a (C) Business Name on the bottom of a template.

Why dont you provide us with a little more information? Where did you find the template? Most likely It's not truly copywritten.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act doesn't enforce a strict time limit, as long as the host acts within a reasonable amount of time, they are covered by the safe harbour provision.

Everything is copyrighted when it is first created, including themes for Wordpress blogs. If you remove the copyright notice at the bottom of the theme, you are committing copyright infringement. However, if it is a free theme, the owner may not notice or even care.

To be pedantic, only the images and CSS included with Wordpress can be protected in this way.

If all you want is the templates which make up the glue, and then you make your own images and stylesheet, the templates are derivative works of Wordpress and must be GPLed - the GPL explicitly prohibits any further restrictions such as "you must keep our links".

You'll want to have the utmost faith in your host, and their datacenter, that they'll react sanely to DMCA requests before you try something like that though... because butthurt WP theme developers will still consider their template code non-GPLed.

OK, the case is this, the owner claims he made the Wordpress template and he can proof it, but I did not get the template from his site I downloaded it from somewhere else with the links already removed.

I do not live in the US and I am not afraid of DMCA notices myself, my country is on the US copyright blacklist and we have other things to worry about, we do not enforce copyright here. I am only concerned about the host actions because they are in the US.

OK, the case is this, the owner claims he made the Wordpress template and he can proof it, but I did not get the template from his site I downloaded it from somewhere else with the links already removed.


If he is the owner of the copyright, it doesn't matter where you downloaded it from. If someone posts a movie online and you grab a copy and put in your site to download, the movie studio is not going to care that you downloaded it from somewhere else (well, they will, but they will attack that source too), they are going to want you to take it down and respect their rights.


I do not live in the US and I am not afraid of DMCA notices myself, my country is on the US copyright blacklist and we have other things to worry about, we do not enforce copyright here. I am only concerned about the host actions because they are in the US.

The hosts actions will be to comply with laws where they operate, not based off where you reside.

However way you look at it the software holds a license and if there is a valid Terms of Use policy stating it cannot be removed then you are legally bound to it, And todo such things in my opinion is wrong, People spend months & months or even years developing software, for it to be passed off as somebody elses would upset me as much as the next person. If it's location is an issue i would contact the style developer and ask there permission to either Move or Remove the copyright, if its free software they may just allow it.