Is it safe to use nulled themes/templates

A lot of nulled themes are available from here and loads of other websites.

So, I was wondering. How safe is it to use these themes for your own sites (and even your customers if you in that line of business)?

What is the likelyhood of getting into trouble?

In my mind it wouldnt be very hard for the theme authors to do a google search and find sites using their theme/template. They could probably also work out if you had paid for it or not.

Any thoughts?

i think that is safe! very safe!

as i know of i dont think u can search for all the websites that have the same template.
The only chance of you or your clients getting caught is if they actually came across your site and checked if you owned it. Which is highly unlikely! especially when you consider how many domains there on the internet lol

always check those nulled themes for funny looking java in the headers or footers...there are some naughty people out there

If you template doesn't have any weard code they cannot know that your template is nulled, except if they would like email you and you would not have a license or something like that

At worst someone will probably send you a cease and desist. And I doubt that would come up.

At first it might not be a bad thing to put a nulled theme/template up to keep costs down, but once you make money off of it, you should go and legitamitley buy the template from its rightful creator.

If the theme is not encrypted you will be able easily to find out if it calls home or something like that. Just remember to do some small changes so it does not look exactly like the original theme and have the same footprints

If you really want to be safe, check that the theme is available with a developers licence. If it has that, then if anyone contacts you tell them you bought the site with the theme in place.

Some people are hidding links in divs. Check your source code carefully.

I have the same concern
the prices of some of those WP templates are just ridiculous.

It depends where you get them from.I just buy them now.No hassle that way.I charge the client anyway so what's it to me wht it cost.
Html $15 wordpress $35 cheap as chips.
I did download them a long time ago but alot had hidden code.By the time I cleaned it up I'd lost the price of the theme anyway so it didn't make sense.
You get some stunning themes for next to nothing,it's nice to support good work.

I'll download info products(not even all that often) simply because 99% are sh*te and worth nowhere near their asking price.I have downloaded stuff ,found it good and bought it.
There are some smart coders out there,wouldn't be the first time I've known someone who grabbed a theme and couldn't understand why he wasn't ranking only to find he had a very well hidden porn link or 10 in the theme.Try telling that one to a client.
A theme is different,what you see is what you get if you buy it,info products are usually recycled,full of affil links or just crap.I enjoy finding the 1-2% that are actually decent.

Amazing, you guys rock!