Theme Licenses (And Repercussions for Infringing)

Hey BHW,

I was just curious if anyone has any expertise or experience they can lend -- has there ever been a case where a theme creator enforced their '1 site per license' or 'site must be non-commercial' clauses? $x000s to Themeforest is way too large of a sum, so I imagine the majority of customers ignore these rules.

Thanks!

I'm sure it's similar to people being sued for copyright infringement when images are concerned. It doesn't happen often enough for everyone to get sued, but there are cases of people being sued for using copyrighted images.

Now, in the case of ThemeForest themes, unless the offender leaves footprints that confirms that they are the owner of 2 or more websites that are using the theme with only 1 license, it would be difficult for the theme creator to actually track them and press charges. So, while I'm sure someone has been caught before, the chance of it happening to someone who avoids detection is pretty slim. However, this doesn't mean you should do it.

Thanks for the thought -- do you think hosting on the server also constitutes a footprint?

MeBeardless said:

Thanks for the thought -- do you think hosting on the server also constitutes a footprint?

Click to expand...

Hosting 2 websites with the same infringing theme on the same serve could be seen as a footprint, although I doubt the creator of theme is going to go through all that effort to discover whether or not you stole the theme. A footprint would be something more like you linking the 2 websites together and using the same author identity for those websites (as well as having your WhoIs unguarded).