I don’t normally like to do things like this, but when it happens twice in one day, I feel compelled.
It’s really sad that there are these kinds of people who feel the need to steal my Revolution themes and use them without paying. Next time you go online and rip off a theme by using the source code, please remove my counter code - I might not catch you.
We don’t live in an innocent world. Sad stuff.
The worst part is, if they had a sob story and said the couldn’t afford it but really liked the themes, I might feel inclined to “give it to them”.
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That really sucks Brian!! I don’t know why people are so lazy and steal other peoples hard work. It’s just a sad reality of the internet I guess.
Hmmm, it is sad. I have had it happen to me also, not themes, but my photography. I know the feeling, I guess thats why I emailed you so much about the same issue! Wanted to make sure we were on the same page with everything.
Thanks……………………..
What did they say when you confronted them? Were they aware of copyright laws?
Ouch, it’s always depressing when people rip off other’s great works.
Bad form indeed. Interesting issue is this: how did they manage to get their hands on it without paying for it?
Brian,
You can take care of this within a couple days. You just need to simply file a copyright infringement with their host. The host is then obligated to send them a notice to comply or show proof they own it and obviously they don’t so within about 2 or 3 days the site will be gone. It’s actually quite simple to do.
There’s also an “anti-piracy” company that a number of companies like Vbulletin use to protect their work. Hiring them is also an option and again take down of the site is swift.
Sitting back and doing nothing should not be an option.
Hope this helps.
Bryan
Any idea how he got a copy? Did he just rip the CSS/images and Markup from your demo and code up the WP stuff himself?
This isn’t so much a copyright issue, rather an issue of theft. They went into the source code of my demo site, and copied and pasted it - in both cases. As you can tell from all of the links and images on the Magazine rip off, all of the urls and sources of images lead back to my demo site. Not to mention in the regular Revolution rip off I placed a piece of text in the code so that I knew it was a ripoff. None of my downloads have my counter codes in them, so when I see a site that has one, I know for a fact that they are using a copy that wasn’t purchased.
The joke is on them
a) Because you caught them
b) Because their feeds load YOUR feed
c) Because they have the DEMO site no follow and no index tags which will stop them getting into Google.
<link rel=”EditURI” type=”application/rsd+xml”
It is totally awful though. I assume that you have sent their hosting provider a DMCA take down notice?
Regards,
http://www.ThoseShows.com
My last message did have an example of the code in their header of their pages… seems wordpress comments took that out which is good
Cheers,
Dave
Would also be worth reporting them to Google Adsense:
Regards,
David
Brian: Sad to say, the Internet is like the real world, a collection of the good, bad and ugly. These are cases of theft of your intellectual property and should be handled as such. Aside from pulling the plug on these operations, all we can do is shine a spotlight on them while also promoting examples of Internet citizens acting in commendable ways.
I love your site and your work. I have been eyeing the ‘Revolution’ theme with covetous thoughts… I will one day buy it when I can justify it. Shame on those who would steal it!
Yes I agree the world is full of crummy people. The thing I hate more than the one person stealing it is the people that steal it and then post it on warez sites.
In reality it hurts the honest people more because developers then turn to encryption which makes things harder to install.
Brian,
Thank you for sharing your experience. It’s useful to be informed about these sorts of incidents.
Sincerely,
Chantel
I can’t afford them either. I’d really like to use one, but I’m not gonna steal it. I’ll just admire from afar. LOL That really sucks though. I’m sorry people are such jack ass’s.
It is really sad to read about people like this. Like Deborah, I’ve had my photography stolen too and it irks me. People think you just click a shutter and poof.. instant image.. no work involved. HA! if they only knew. I don’t buy the “can’f afford” it theory. I say, if you want something, earn it, or negotiate it, but don’t steal it. I do believe in karma though.. what comes around goes around and I don’t see much success in the future for these folks.
The Internet has opened a door to an entirely different breed of thief, ones who wouldn’t think about stealing something from a store shelf, but view information so freely-available online as without an owner.
When you lower the barriers (jail, publicity, etc.) to some acts, it beings in a whole other crowd. The Internet has set off a rash of intellectual property thefts, ranging from ripping off designs and photos to copyright infringement.
Another point: the Internet, more and more is being dominated by people living in countries where ethics, laws and ownership rights may not match those of the U.S. or Western nations.
The best bet is to raise the bar for Internet infractions, again givinf pause to the normally law-abiding people.
If I use or tweak someone’s theme I will always credit them. It’s only fair and morally right. Even if the theme is free. I learn from other peoples work so give them the credit for all their hard work. So someday I can evolve my style and pass the baton on to others.
But,a big but at that……..Stealing is stealing, period!.
Dan
It’s an very unfortunate reality about the internet, but I’ve come to realize that if I put something online there is absolutely no way to stop someone from taking it if they want it. Currently the only answer is…….not to put it online! (of course that’s not really an answer)
So until the guys with the really high foreheads figure out a way to protect our stuff, I just try to make it harder for the theives.
I put big ugly “copyrights” on my images, and I’m currently looking at some javascript “right click disablers” to slow down the average users.
Cest La Vie,
dave.
This guy http://churchtheme.com/purchase/ sells it for $200! And calls it a CHURCH theme. Or are people allowed to resell??
Dave: This is the current problem with the Internet. It is still in the growing pains of meshing traditional business users (who care about things such as copyrights and intellectual property) and a growing majority of users from countries where piracy and copyright infringement carry the same social stigma as jaywalking here.) One telling factoid: sites using China’s .ch top-level domain now outnumber U.S.-based .com domains.
The answer may be to follow two paths: one, educate new users to the demands of a commercial Internet, and two, raise the stigma of online theft. We can do the latter by publicizing rip-offs of copyrighted material, as is happening in this comment thread.
Until that time, you are right to assume anything placed online that can be accessed by the public, will be stolen.
Seth: ChurchTheme appears to be a joint creation of designer Cory Miller and Brian. Here’s what the style.css file says:
Author: Cory Miller and Brian Gardner
Author URI: http://www.churchtheme.com
Version: 1.0
Seth, Cory has permission to do what he is doing. Reselling the theme is not allowed, without my permission - and Cory and I are partners with some projects, as Ed has mentioned.