I found something disturbing today..I have an incoming WordPress link from a porn site...they are using my Christmas 1 WP theme
here
what can I do about it? I'm really quite upset about this because they left my link on the template which normally I appreciate but NOT in this case.

Ow...I can understand your being upset. Any option of contacting them and asking them to remove the link? (Sorry to state the obvious... )

@arwen54: I know this bothers you but having the design available for download with a creative commons license, anyone can use your designs, even if it's an adult web site as long as they give credit, which they did do.

You say "what a creep" but at the same time, this person found your design and liked it and is using it for a site... isn't that what everyone wants? Their designs being used?

I'm not trying to be a jerk but once a design leaves your hands, especially for being a free download, how can you or anyone for that matter get upset how your design is being used?

I do suggest like mentioned above contacting the site owner and ask them to remove the link if you don't want it there but they did follow your license.

Yep arwen54, that's about all you can do.

Maybe you could put something into your design or license saying they can't be used for adult sites but again, based on the CC license, I don't think you can.

Maybe it's time to check with a real legal person who knows internet law, etc and ask some questions?

I'm sure this will happen again or maybe already has to other designers?

Granted, you don't approve of adult content websites but I can tell you that they're not going away because they do make money for people.

Looking at the site using your design, it just seems like a new site with no content, so maybe they will end up removing your name and the design down the road.

Good luck and let us know if you get a reply from the person.

oh and thanks, again, everyone, for your support.

@bakercad: that was my suggestion but before we/OD makes any changes to licenses, it should be run by someone who is an attorney who is well versed in internet law and the full Creative Commons license.

If we add something in like that without checking first, we could be opening a can of worms which we don't want.

As for what's questionable material, that's in the eye of the beholder, so that's a hard one to justify, especially when using CC or public domain licensing.

heh....guess I should have read your post a bit more.

Shouldn't be a legal issue if you "request" that they remove the link back. Doesn't mean that the legally HAVE to, just means that you've politely asked them to.

Here's a little reading for you:CC FAQ's - I don’t like the way a person has used my work...

ah that's good info...anyway...I think what I'll do is put a readme file in my template packages and include something like this: you are free to use my templates or WordPress themes for whatever purpose and I appreciate all users who choose to link with me, however, if you promote x, y, and z, I would appreciate it if you please remove my link from the footer. Thank you for your consideration.
Karen Blundell..etc...

what do you think? will that help or am I just wasting my time and perhaps making too much of this?

@sean: good there it is...clear as day...now we all know...

@Christopher: as a parent of a 15-year-old son, I can't have my name linked to any site like that, you know? I know there are many people who aren't bothered by this stuff...most mothers parents would be, I think

thanks, Bob

the readme could help, but as bakercad said, it is doubtful that they read them at all.

learning from previous similar experiences, what i did for my last two submissions was to explicitly request on the template page itself that the templates not be used for adult or related sites. i just don't know if they would ever be read.

@arwen: i have a similar experience.. i think it was an amateur web cam site and a site named paris hilton tonight.com

in addition to the readme.....place the "remove my link, pornboy!" in the html file so it's visible when they preview the template.

OR....I know that the "chain gang" (as I like to call them...Joe, Sean and Christopher) is quite busy, but maybe give an option for designers to check a box saying "not for porn...etc" when a design is submitted. Then when the design is downloaded there is a message saying "The designer of this template has requested that this template NOT be used for porn, Paris Hilton and other things that start with the letter "P". If you insist on using it for this purpose, please remove the link to this designer's site." then make them click a button before the download continues.

Just an idea guys....don't kill me. Offers a bakie..

Chain gang? Wasn't that a porn film?

In all seriousness, even if we put an option to say that a template can not be used for porn doesn't mean the user/downloader won't do it any way and actually that kills the idea behind this site, providing templates to help make the internet a prettier place.

If we start saying "a template can be used for this or that but not this", there goes the open source spirit... and you should just stop providing templates right now.

However I do think that the designer should put something in the design readme file or try and contact the person using the design and ask that the designer link be removed if the design is going to be used on an adult themed website.

That's going to be the best thing.

There is only one way that you can make sure the design isn't used on an adult content orientated site, and that is to not create the design in the first place.

Having restriction options in the submission process on what type of sites a design can and cannot be used on just seems really picky to me. If you have specific requests about the way in which a design is used then insert them into a readme file or similar of the .zip and then hope people follow them. Just because you tick a box saying this and that doesn't mean it has any effect. As an example you choose creative commons and request a linkback, that does not mean 100% of all sites that use the design will follow that procedure. There is no way to guarantee that checking a box saying that the design cannot be used on adult orientated sites will have any effect, if anything, it will just cause even more problems.

Example, Bob chooses the option that says his design cannot be used on adult sites, but then Mr XXX uses Bob's design on an adult site, now does Bob go after Mr XXX, or, does Bob come and moan at Open Designs because he checked that option which says it cannot be used for that purpose. Because Bob checked that option, he might think the error is with Open Design for not making sure the guidelines were followe,d as he submitted under the condition of that little box he checked.

Does that make sense? I hope it does :)

Oh my *needs to wake up a bit more* what I wrote is pretty much excatly what you said above. Just ignore me from here on in

you do know that you are helping their google ranking by linking to it at the top?

Porn sites are not a big problem, they are mostly harmless. Ultra-political sites and regular spam sites are much worse, as they can send a lot of angry visitors to the original designers page.

I read an interesting post about this on another theme designers site today, where a top US politician had used his design for a blog-based site - and his political opponents were trying to storm the designers mailbox with stupid comments. While most people understand the difference between "site owner" and "template designer", not everyone does. Most designers will meet this problem at some point...

I see negative results of these misunderstandings in my mailbox every day. But like Ainslie said, it comes with the job. In most cases, a friendly e-mail pointing to a published explanation (like the one on my contact page - http://andreasviklund.com/contact/) solves the problem. I never contact webmasters about removing the link, but it would of course be a good suggestion if you are worried about being connected to websites that you don't like.

Personally, I think that if I've put it there in the first place and the site owner decides to keep the link, I'll have to accept that people may misunderstand it. It is still only a few e-mails per day to deal with, and the positive effects of the link easily makes it worth that effort.