Need advice: software license deactivated

I bought a wordpress theme that cost $1000 and the owner deactivated my license for no good reason. He claims I violated the terms of service by downloading the theme on sites that I do not own but I do own all sites that I downloaded the theme onto. He refuses to let me prove that I own all sites. He claims his back-end software found other ip addresses and different hosting accounts. Looking for advice on what I can do to either get a refund (year later) or get my license back (possibly through an attorney).

Very confusing for me. You paid $1000 for a WP theme. Really??? This must be the most well-done theme for WP I heard of.

For what I know license is used to establish how many copies of something you might use. In this case, in how many sites you may use the same theme.

What you are saying is very confused for me.

I've never heard of a theme for WP that costs $1000.

It's more than a theme. It allows you to build lists,funnels, membership sites, auto webinars and sales funnels (like optimize press but 20X better). You are allowed to use the theme on any site that "you" own. They have software that can supposedly tell when people are using the license on sites that are not owned by them. That is not the case here. The owner de-activated my site and refuses to give me back the license even if i prove it.

Well come on now, take his ass to court. Perhaps be nice and send a letter of intent to sue first.

lol you surely got scammed.Mind sharing your site? very curious to see the $1000 theme.

jond1 said:

It's more than a theme. It allows you to build lists,funnels, membership sites, auto webinars and sales funnels (like optimize press but 20X better). You are allowed to use the theme on any site that "you" own. They have software that can supposedly tell when people are using the license on sites that are not owned by them. That is not the case here. The owner de-activated my site and refuses to give me back the license even if i prove it.

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This is not how license works, license is a document, nothing more than that. You mention that in the theme is possible to tell the owner where the theme is installed. This is not right, for starters, if this is true, then, the theme brakes your privacy, any software can't do this without your awareness. If it does, then it's crime.

You also say that this is not only a theme, because makes lots of stuff, too. Well, all that you cited that this theme does, is bs, because you can get everything for free as plugins from the Wordpress site, in the plugin section.

Sure, you has been scammed. Sorry for that bud.

A theme can't have such PRICE in the market. Serious sites that are selling amazing themes, have prices from $10 to $100.

Well it is possible that he did an exclusive buyout on the theme, as those can definitely go for $1k and more. But it doesn't sound like it.

theAngle said:

This is not how license works, license is a document, nothing more than that. You mention that in the theme is possible to tell the owner where the theme is installed. This is not right, for starters, if this is true, then, the theme brakes your privacy, any software can't do this without your awareness. If it does, then it's crime.

You also say that this is not only a theme, because makes lots of stuff, too. Well, all that you cited that this theme does, is bs, because you can get everything for free as plugins from the Wordpress site, in the plugin section.

Sure, you has been scammed. Sorry for that bud.

A theme can't have such PRICE in the market. Serious sites that are selling amazing themes, have prices from $10 to $100.

Click to expand...

Wrong on... all counts.

A license for things such as themes is an agreement that a person may use the creators product for a set price and conditions. The conditions may be anything within reason. The product can have anything and it may break certain laws if the person agrees to it, as long as the law is not extreme. If you agree to have your stats pulled every day and the site scanned, it's legal. If you agree to have your arm chopped off, that's not legal and would not hold up.
Also, if you want to complain about privacy I hope you're using barebones linux. Windows has callhomes. Mac has callhomes. Your browser does. Your phone does. Pretty much every damn software you have does the exact same thing to verify its license and integrity. So please, uninstall everything and start complaining otherwise you're just a hypocrite.

For the difference between paid and free... Do you own a car? If so, YOUR WASTING MONEY! YOU CAN WALK! Jeez, so much money saved. Bad example? Have someone wash your car for free, then go to a professional place and have them wash it. You'll notice a difference in quality. Paid > Free in nearly all cases.

$1000 for a template/theme? Reasonable. It just needs to have alot of features instead of just a basic layout.


@OP:
You have limited options. You could send him a legal notice that you're going to sue him. That would likely get your license reactivated (since it costs them nothing.)
Alternatively if you still have access to the T&C you agreed to, you could see if there's anything forbidding you from modifying the files. If not, you could possibly legally modify it to not use a specific "portion" of the template. This is much harder/impossible if IonCube is used to encrypt key files.

That is really costly. You should had ensure all the conditions before you made the deal. Try to convince him some how.