So basically I’m creating wordpress themes for Themeforest, and I would like to get rid of theme stealers. I need ideas how to do that, I have a plan, but I’m not sure what would be the best solution to realise it (to keep users away from removing it or atleast make it as hard as possible). The idea is like this, after installing theme, it adds a counter somewhere, and it says after x days your theme will be blocked if you won’t enter purchase code. If they enter purchase code and it is valid (will validate with API), then notice about blocking will dissapear and script will be deleted, otherwise if they won’t enter the purchase code theme will be blocked. I can do the blocking thing e.c., but I need a suggestion, how to make it as hard as possible for users to remove this feature? If I will add the line in one of the theme files, they will be able just to remove it.
So any suggestions?
Because WP-templates are opensource, there is no way to do this. No matter what you do, they will also be able to open the exact same file and undo anything you did. In addition, it is more difficult to block something than removing it.
You could try to base64 encode it, but again, they will be able to undo whatever you do.
I am not a fan og WP and I don’t have much experience with it; BUT, I would suggest to set up a demo-site with each template. If people need to be able to “test” the admin-interface, set up a mod where you remove all the template-settings, so they can’t get a hold of the files.
Long story short; when opensource-files are moved away from a closed environment to their own, you loose all kind of control.