Say No to Obfuscated Code
It seems that there are more and more galleries or theme sites popping up offering free WordPress themes. Sounds good right? As with anything else in life all is not what it seems. Many of these theme sites insert obfuscated code into the themes they offer, usually in the footer and certainly without the permission of the original authors.
You see, the characters that run these sites scour the web for free WordPress themes, change the links in the footer, encrypt the code then upload them to their sites. In most cases, the encryption is simply a tactic to prevent the novice user from removing the links that were placed there by the theme site itself. But it could be something more sinister. Do you really want to take the chance to upload some obfuscated code to your server not knowing what it is or what it does? That's just plain stupidity. I'm not going to link to the sites involved as I don't wish to provide them with more traffic than they already receive. The bottom line is only download a theme from a trusted gallery or better yet get it from the author directly. If you're unsure ask someone in the WP Support Forums. If you insist on downloading from a theme site or gallery (and there are several legitimate ones) ALWAYS inspect EACH file of the theme prior to using it.
Len has been blogging for over 10 years and is a rabid WordPress fan. In addition to blogging here you can find him writing the occasional article and toiling away in the forums at WeblogToolsCollection.com. He also hangs out at the WordPress support forums lending a hand where he can. You can also find him at his other blog LenKutchma.com
I did the same thing
but in a manner way, means that I do give credits to the author for his/her job well-done. Anyhow, the internet has changed the way artists promote their artwork and it's true what u said. Don't ever download and upload without knowing the content of the script.
In the world of WordPress, although themes are released under the GPL authors retain the rights to exclusive distribution. In other words, I can't take someone's theme and offer it for download on my site without the original author's permission and certainly cannot remove his link and replace it with my own. This is compounded by people who encrypt the code making it difficult for newbies to do anything about it. This is a BIG no-no.
I have a collection of blogger templates. Those templates which are released under GPL, I'm still retaining them the rights and I do believe that they wanted their artwork to be distributed all over the world. Like myself, I do create templates for blogger and I'm happy to see most of them now are using mine.
I'm not an English native speaker. Mind my grammartical errors
Some WordPress theme authors don't mind but most do. It's good practice to ask. But that's beside the point. The point is using encryption. It's foolish for people for upload encrypted PHP without knowing what it is or what it does. This is a perfect way to gain access to a server.
English may not be your native tongue but you speak it quite well.