Comments on: Check For Nasty Footers In WordPress Themes

By: Jen@encrypt wordpress footer

Jen@encrypt wordpress footer — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:54:38 +0000

decode the Base64 is very simple. but do not encourage this

By: Ruslan G.

Ruslan G. — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:40:01 +0000

Thanks soo much I have been on the internet looking for websites to decode it then you told me to copy some of the footer code, never thought of that.

Thanks!

By: Premium Wordpress

Premium Wordpress — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:22:41 +0000

Oh man, this is just what I have been looking for, but, when I decode mine, I still get some encoded stuff, the string at the start of my footer is eval((base64_decode(

A bit different than yours, do you know how to decode it, it seems to be double encoded.

Thanks

By: Vivek

Vivek — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:53:27 +0000

thanks bro it really worked for me even on local php host,

By: Jon mathew

Jon mathew — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:51:27 +0000

Shall i remove wp_footer()from my theme?

if it is removed, what will happen?

By: the

the — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:39:51 +0000

The GPL, allows you to do anything you want to any GPL code, it simply requires copyright information is left in the source files. Not in the html source code (view source) but in the files that no one sees sitting on your server doing things.

The theme/plugin/whatever doesn’t become GPL as soon as you plug it in, it is GPL by it’s very nature of being a theme/plugin/whatever FOR a GPL system. There is a big difference between the GNU GPL and open source software. GPL is not open source (which is actually quite restrictive), GPL is FREE software. Free as in “a Bird” not Free as in “buy one get one Free”

First thing anyone should do with a wp theme is check the footer and remove everything. If you want to keep a “theme created by” link, I would suggest adding nofollow. Again GPL, so perfectly ok to do this.
Anyone who creates a theme simply to get themselves a backlink in site footers is not playing within the spirit of the GPL anyway. In GPL, you create something for yourself, and release it in the hope it is useful to someone else. If people want to expand on what you’ve done, that’s even better.

And it’s not illegal to decrypt base64. if it was illegal, base64 wouldn’t have 2 functions: base64_encode() + base64_decode().

By: DTs Flash Drive Blog

DTs Flash Drive Blog — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:16:07 +0000

Phew, that’s good to know. I don’t mind giving credit to authors either but when the encrypted footer is plastered with links that’s just annoying. Why can’t just one link suffice and why do they all have to be nofollow? It is in my case. Consider that this can hurt pagerank, especially if the “neighborhood” isn’t good. Anyway, I think I will be able to change my footer now. Thanks for the post and comments!

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 10:12:27 +0000

Just to ease everyone mind.
You can do whatever you want to a theme so long as it’s being used by your WP installation. Once it’s plugged into WordPress it now falls under the same GPL licensing restrictions. Most theme authors aren’t even aware of this, but that doesn’t make it not so, and for those that do know but still encrypt there footers with a tagged message saying that the theme is protected under copyright protection, are just trying to protect their investment with a link so that they can get paid…..however, you can decode it, reverse engineer it, alter it, delete it or do anything you would like to the footer….you could even leave the footer intact, with linkage back to the author ;)

You can read some words from the WP man himself about the legality of changing the footer, or anything in the theme for that matter, he really nails it
CLICK HERE
Or if you’re really worried, freshen up on the actual licensing topic at hand http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins
Hope this helps!

By: Darren

Darren — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:27:05 +0000

This is great. Thanks!
I’ve downloaded WordPress Templates that had bad crap in the footer. So, this is much appreciated.

By: bani

bani — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:29:54 +0000

You’re best!….Thanks!!!