It seems we have some do-gooders here.
Some facts first:
★ Proforms (commercial version) was first. After ONE YEAR we decided to offer a reduced, at no charge version as a thank you to the community.
★ The software is our property. It doesn't matter if this is GPL or not. If we want we can take it away from the public and prohebit any usage!
★ FSF and GPL doesn't say that a visible copyright link isn't allowed.
★ IT IS A COPYRIGHT LINK. Because the link involves the company name and slogan. It doesn't redirect to mooj or the software shop where we sell the commercial packages. It leads directly to the company which is the copyright holder of the software.
Especially our friend Ken, which seems to be a very young script kiddy or an eternal nerd with lost of reallity does mean to know the "whooo" secrets of Proforms Basic regarding the link back.
There is nothing special about this, we just fused the link back with the security functions.
We even don't tell that ones may not remove the link back. If someone is good enough he can do this.
But if e,g, Kev is not an advanced PHP coder and tries to alter the code and doesn't know what exactly he does, it is very normal that he breaks the software but he shouldn't wonder that it doesn't work anymore.
But giving the users an advice to hide the link by a non-displaying div wrap is negligent.
What do you answer all the users coming back here and telling:
"Hey I got a google penalty and lost my #1 rank at google because of having hidden links on my site!"
I wonder how people can forget what they've wrote so fast:
Hi, I'm pretty impressed with the mad4media forms module (basic version) & will at some point buy the full package..
The same guy:
I uninstalled the module and have started using a different one that has excellent support.
At the end let's come to our worldly innocent friend Ken.
If I need to guess I would say you are a script kiddy which has never developed any full working extension.
You don't know how much work and at least money it needs to create such an extension like Proforms.
We are talking about 3 Years of work.
We were always fine with the commercial version, it was just an act of good will to offer a free (as in beer) version.
Shame on you abusing the meaning of GPL for your parasitic background.
We ask people very politly to leave the link back intact and don't force them.
Continue to harass people or say another word and I will show them exactly how to
remove the links and disable the hidden MD5 check functions.
I wonder - what will our (John Wayne - Robin Hood - Mixture) friend do when he comes back from "occupy wallstreet" to california and has writing of our attorneys in his post box?
The above quote is THREATENING and BLACKMAILING.
Don't forget that people went to jail in your country for less.
We have legal representatives in the US.
What you are doing is damaging our company's reputation and especially californian courts don't like this a lot.
It is allways a judge or the jury who decides what is wrong or right and not your GPL.
So maybe WE should make a try to immitate John Wayne:
One more word and you will become the girlfriend of a tattooed guy.