The WordPress Template Lockdown

An emerging trend among WordPress developers is the placement of encrypted code in the footer of the templates they create. This practice, usually associated with free templates, involves encrypting the developer’s name and backlink information preventing its removal by the user. It is a practice surrounded by controversy in the WordPress community and poses some new challenges for the open platform.

As the developer, the rationale behind encrypting attribution information is fairly straight-forward. Users often erase this information in an effort to brand the site as their own and remove all traces of origin. To the developer, this can seem like a violation of intellectual property as the user is taking credit for their work. It also hits the developer from an SEO standpoint leaving them high and dry on precious backlinks. Thus, if a developer can stifle the removal of their information through the use of encryption, this is seen as a attractive option.

From the user’s perspective, the removal of the developer information is often due to the stigma attached to using a preexisting template. The user would rather not have their visitors scroll to the bottom of their beautiful website only to find that it was created by someone else. This is especially true among template developers looking to skin other templates to pass off as their own.

One of the attractive aspects of the WordPress community is that it’s just that…a community. Developers exchange knowledge and encourage others to do the same. As such, removing user control by encrypting code detracts from the open nature of the WordPress platform. Developers should instead institute a level of light persuasion and politely ask their users to refrain from removing developer information. This would give users a choice and I think developers would be pleasantly surprised at just how many users leave their information intact.

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