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So, this is great and all, but: How are you going to prevent people from stealing the themes instead of buying them? One can grab the full HTML and CSS from th

So, this is great and all, but: How are you going to prevent people from stealing the themes instead of buying them? One can grab the full HTML and CSS from the preview views.

dawilster 15y ago
If your market is professionals I'm sure they'll typically be mature enough and make an honest purchase, I mean look at themeforest they make no effort to hide their themes source codes but thats probably because people that are willing to steal are never going to purchase the theme anyway, so its a negligible trying to prevent it. Great idea btw.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Thanks, but actually I got the idea from jamesjyu's comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 It sounded like a good idea so I decided to execute on it. :)
  - danberger 15y ago
    +1 for honesty
coderdude 15y ago
I don't prevent people from stealing the themes. It's a necessary risk. Without a live preview you'd never want to buy a theme and live previews are basically standard at this point (see themeforest.net). If someone saves a theme from the live preview and if it's discovered then the course of action would be a legal one.
- moconnor 15y ago
  You could use obfuscated minified source for the previews and sell the original readable CSS and HTML. Everybody needs to customize their theme.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    That would be a fantastic way to go about it actually. Thanks for putting it in my head!
    - almost 15y ago
      If it becomes a problem for you and you think there are people who would steal them without that but pay you with then go for it. But it will make it harder to evaluate themes for people who do actually want to buy them. This is an awesome idea by the way. I love the choice on Theme Forest but I the flexibility of Bootstrap is brilliant too. I'm also using Bootstrap whenever I prototype anything and being able to just buy and use a theme later on would be incredibly useful (obviously it's not quite that simple, but it could be close). I will almost certainly be buying lots of themes from you assuming you get designs (which I'm sure you will!). I'm surprised ThemeForest don't have a Bootstrap section yet actually...
      - coderdude 15y ago
        True, any obfuscation would make it impossible to judge the quality of the source. Good point. I'm surprised that ThemeForest hasn't jumped on this yet either.
        moe 15y ago
        You could perhaps partially obfuscate the code. But it'd probably be tricky to ensure that at least some interesting parts remain untouched. Perhaps let the template author markup those areas?
        coderdude 15y ago
        If it were to be done that might be the only way to do it. The author is going to have a better idea of what they feel is the meat and potatoes than I would.
        jtheory 15y ago
- anderspetersson 15y ago
  I was unaware that themeforest didn't cover their themes markup either, then my point is obviously proven wrong, congrats on a great idea.
tomblomfield 15y ago
People who don't care enough about being caught committing copyright theft will never pay anyone, whereas those who care will usually pay. cf https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024
- StavrosK 15y ago
  I don't care about copyright theft but I pay because I $8 is peanuts for a good theme.

So, this is great and all, but: How are you going to prevent people from stealing the themes instead of buying them? One can grab the full HTML and CSS from the preview views.

dawilster 15y ago

If your market is professionals I'm sure they'll typically be mature enough and make an honest purchase, I mean look at themeforest they make no effort to hide their themes source codes but thats probably because people that are willing to steal are never going to purchase the theme anyway, so its a negligible trying to prevent it. Great idea btw.

coderdude 15y ago
Thanks, but actually I got the idea from jamesjyu's comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 It sounded like a good idea so I decided to execute on it. :)
- danberger 15y ago
  +1 for honesty

coderdude 15y ago

I don't prevent people from stealing the themes. It's a necessary risk. Without a live preview you'd never want to buy a theme and live previews are basically standard at this point (see themeforest.net). If someone saves a theme from the live preview and if it's discovered then the course of action would be a legal one.

moconnor 15y ago
You could use obfuscated minified source for the previews and sell the original readable CSS and HTML. Everybody needs to customize their theme.
- coderdude 15y ago
  That would be a fantastic way to go about it actually. Thanks for putting it in my head!
  - almost 15y ago
    If it becomes a problem for you and you think there are people who would steal them without that but pay you with then go for it. But it will make it harder to evaluate themes for people who do actually want to buy them. This is an awesome idea by the way. I love the choice on Theme Forest but I the flexibility of Bootstrap is brilliant too. I'm also using Bootstrap whenever I prototype anything and being able to just buy and use a theme later on would be incredibly useful (obviously it's not quite that simple, but it could be close). I will almost certainly be buying lots of themes from you assuming you get designs (which I'm sure you will!). I'm surprised ThemeForest don't have a Bootstrap section yet actually...
    - coderdude 15y ago
      True, any obfuscation would make it impossible to judge the quality of the source. Good point. I'm surprised that ThemeForest hasn't jumped on this yet either.
      - moe 15y ago
        You could perhaps partially obfuscate the code. But it'd probably be tricky to ensure that at least some interesting parts remain untouched. Perhaps let the template author markup those areas?
        coderdude 15y ago
        If it were to be done that might be the only way to do it. The author is going to have a better idea of what they feel is the meat and potatoes than I would.
        jtheory 15y ago
anderspetersson 15y ago
I was unaware that themeforest didn't cover their themes markup either, then my point is obviously proven wrong, congrats on a great idea.

tomblomfield 15y ago

People who don't care enough about being caught committing copyright theft will never pay anyone, whereas those who care will usually pay. cf https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024

StavrosK 15y ago
I don't care about copyright theft but I pay because I $8 is peanuts for a good theme.