Comments on: When Blog Scrapers Use Your WordPress Theme

By: Brother Maynard

Brother Maynard — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:05:36 +0000

NINAL, but from a legal standpoint you’re probably just fine, as has been pointed out… meaning you have no liability. This of course does not prevent a frivolous lawsuit, for which you would want liability insurance — not to so much pay the claim, but to cover the defense costs.

From a practical standpoint, it would be good to do what you can to try and make the nuisance go away up front, which is what I think you’re getting at here. Perhaps rewording the footer credit could help — e.g., “Theme design by Cleave Design // content posted by ” or something to that effect.

You could even put something like “Contact ” in the footer. Most users wouldn’t want their email in the footer, so provide instructions on removing it… since splogs are automated they probably won’t bother.

You could also link to a landing page for the Cleaker theme rather than to your site home, and include a paragraph there for “What to do if…” that addresses the practice of content-scraping and that you only did the design, not the content.

hth.

By: John (Human3rror)

John (Human3rror) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:17:59 +0000

be proud.

By: Shawn Weston

Shawn Weston — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:04:21 +0000

You know, I’ve run into this kind of thing before as well. From what I’ve been told, there’s nothing that you need to do, except for maybe a standard “I’m not responsible for the content of any sites using said template, blah blah…”

Then, just keep a kind email on hand, something like, “Please accept our deepest concerns, as we understand how upsetting plagiarism can be. I regret to inform you that the template has been released to the public, and we have no way to control any of the content of this website, nor are we affiliated in any way with the authors of said site.” If necessary, point them to the first statement somewhere online in closing, and wish them a nice day.

This, of course, is mostly to reassure you and help them go in the right direction. Unless you ripped the content yourself, there’s not a thing they could do about it.

Best wishes,
Shawn

By: adam mclane

adam mclane — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:56:54 +0000

When people threaten legal action against me, I just ask them to contact my lawyer:

Harry Christopher Carabina
1060 W Addison St
Chicago, IL 60613

Of course, Harry Caray died in 1998… but no one is really going to sue you anyway!

Adam

By: Caleb White

Caleb White — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:23:46 +0000

Because the theme was released to public domain and you don’t own the website or have any affiliation with said website, I really don’t think you’d have any problem if any legal action were to even take place. Any good copyright lawyer would know that you are not to blame for that.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:11:35 +0000

You asked “if they don’t trust me – what is to stop them from pursuing legal options?”

I would suggest that the cost of fruitless litigation ought to stop them from pursuing legal options against you. Steps you could take to help them recognize you are not the appropriate target might include sending a reply email that (1) states that you don’t own or control the infringing website, (2) expresses your own disapproval of theft of content, (3) explains your relationship to the Cleaker theme, and (4) shows a link to the page where anyone can download Cleaker.

By: Makeesha

Makeesha — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 04:33:00 +0000

I don’t think there is anything you need to do. There would be no case against you esp. since there is a history that traces back to the creation of the design by yourself – these are people who clearly don’t understand what those little footers are. Short of creating a disclaimer stating that you are responsible for the design ONLY (which could be removed by anyone using the theme – as you know), there’s really nothing you can do but there’s also nothing you need to do I wouldn’t imagine.