If you run one or more WordPress blogs, you might be tempted to use some of the thousands of free WordPress themes available on the web. Be aware that some may contain malicious code or links embedded in encoded sections of PHP code that may be detrimental to your web site.We have always been suspicious about the numerous free WordPress themes available where the footer.php script contains an encoded section intended to prevent users from altering or removing outbound links embedded in the footer. Many authors of these themes sell links to site owners, embed them in the footer script, and then encode the script so that they cannot be removed. Some themes have embedded code that allows the authors to remotely change the links found in the footer.While it is possible to remove the encoded section, many free themes have code hidden elsewhere in the theme scripts that will cause the theme to fail if the encoded section is removed or replaced. Many of the free themes have a clause in the terms of use agreement that prevents users from legally removing or altering encoded scripts. This may not be a legitimate legal restriction.According to a legal opinion about the WordPress GPL (General Public License) posted on the WordPress site, the PHP coding in themes fall under the GPL licensing, as well. Read it yourself and interpret it as you wish, but it appears that the coding in any WordPress theme cannot be copyrighted or protected. That therefore means that the code in any theme can be altered by the user.Note the section in the legal opinion that states, “In conclusion, the WordPress themes supplied contain elements that are derivative of WordPress’s copyrighted code. These themes, being collections of distinct works (images, CSS files, PHP files), need not be GPL-licensed as a whole. Rather, the PHP files are subject to the requirements of the GPL while the images and CSS are not. Third-party developers of such themes may apply restrictive copyrights to these elements if they wish.” This opinion says that the images and the CSS code in a theme can be copyrighted, but any PHP code in the theme cannot.
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