DIY WordPress: How To Add A Copyright Notice To A WordPress Theme

May 9, 2010 By 24 Comments

(Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes)

Updated January 28, 2012. Thank you for visiting. This is the second most popular blog post on Website In A Weekend. Your +1 is highly appreciated!

Adding in your copyright notice is one of those things that everyone knows they’re supposed to “get done.”

And often doesn’t.

Most people do get it done… but once in a while, it slips by. If it slipped by, now is the time to get it handled. If you just haven’t thought of it, now is also a good time to get it handled.

Three basic ways to add a copyright notice to WordPress

  1. Use a WordPress copyright plugin. There are several last I checked. One or more may (or may not) work exactly how you want.
  2. Use copyright or footer support provided by your theme. Thesis makes it easy using the Hooks plugin. Just paste in the copyright code, you’re done.
  3. Add the copyright manually to your WordPress theme files. We’ll take a look at adding a copyright notice directly to the Connections Reloaded theme in the following.

As you can see, there’s nothing difficult about it, it’s just a chore, has to be done.

Hey! You're in the middle of the Website In A Weekend eCourse. Learn how to create and operate a complete WordPress-based website in a single weekend. Start here: Website In A Weekend: Friday Evening - Off to the Races. (If you already have a blog... "audit" the eCourse... you'll find plenty to do.)

Adding a copyright notice to a WordPress theme is very easy, but may require a bit of care: you will have to add some text to the raw files that comprise your theme. It’s also easy to make a mistake, so let’s be careful.

Using the Connections Reloaded theme and proceeding stepwise:

  1. Log in to the Dashboard as the administrator user
  2. On the left sidebar, pull down the “Appearance” menu
  3. Click “Appearance > Editor,” which will give a screen similar to the one shown below
  4. You will see the source code of the theme displayed, probably the “style.css” file. You want to click on the “footer.php” link in the right sidebar. This will allow you to edit the text of the file containing the theme’s footer, all the text displayed at the bottom of the page.
  5. Copy this text into the appropriate place in the footer: 
    Copyright © 2012 Your Company Name — All Rights Reserved

    The “©” symbol is written using “©” and will render like this:

    Copyright © 2012 Your Company Name — All Rights Reserved

    You might have to put your thinking cap on here, and figure out where it’s going to go among all the HTML and PHP elements. If you’ve come this far, you need to learn a little bit of HTML and PHP anyway. You don’t need much.

    NOTE: If the theme’s author has “protected” the theme’s footer and links using encrypted code, you should contact consider using a different theme. You won’t be able to add the copyright notice within the footer, and there may be other, more nefarious code within the theme.

  6. Save your work, and check how it looks. You may have to adjust once or twice to position it correctly.
If you like this article and find it helpful, you could help me in return with a +1. Thanks!

Here’s a screenshot showing the left sidebar, and the highlighted position of the copyright text placed into the footer.

Adding copyright to Connections Reloaded WordPress theme

Adding copyright to Connections Reloaded theme

That’s it!

Very easy really.

If you had any trouble with this, feel free to shoot me an email and explain what happened. I’ll see what I can do. Use the contact form.

Also, if this isn’t exactly what you needed, leave a comment below and I’ll see how best I can help you out.

Previous lessonNext Lesson
Web Site Infrastructure — Required posts and pages for your WordPress blog Your Top 4 Plugins for Wordpress — Critical infrastructure for your WordPress blog
  • Originally published February 26, 2009.
  • Updated May 8, 2010.
Filed Under: Getting Started Tagged With: , ,

How to Use Creative Commons Images From Flickr on WordPress Blog

November 11, 2009 By 9 Comments

(Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes)

Most bloggers agree that having an appropriate image enhances a blog post. That is, excellent images increase reader’s enjoyment. Finding images is a bit of an art. If you have the skill, you may be able to draw from a collection of your own photographs. Or you can purchase an image from a stock photograph provider. And sometimes, you can find just what you need freely available on Flickr.com.

Let’s dig in a little deeper…

Personally, I’m terrible at taking pictures. The lighting is always wrong. Pictures come out muddy, or blurry. I thought having a digital camera made these problems go away. That’s what I get for thinking.

Obtaining a licensed version of the image you want to use is the best tactic. My current preference for finding images for blog posts is iStockphoto. They usually have what I need, in the size I need it, at the right price. And I never have to worry about copyright issues. When iStockphoto and other sites just don’t deliver, there’s other ways to proceed. Here’s what’s cool:

There’s more than one kind of copyright!

The next safest option is using an image with an appropriate Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses come in several different flavors, and you have to make sure you use the correct license for your purpose. A good place to find such images is on Flickr.com.

The key with using images on Flickr is adhering to the copyright imposed by the photographer. This is a big deal. Some people take copyright very seriously, especially professional photographers. Using their images without compensation is more or less taking food from their mouth. Occasionally, a photographer will come after infringers. Trust me, you do not want Lane after you. If you like it, buy it.

Use Flickr search, but filter on the appropriate Creative Commons license applicable for your blog. I limit myself to Attribution and Public Domain because Website In A Weekend is a commercial venture. Here’s what that looks like on the “Advanced Search” page at Flickr.com:

Creative Commons searching at Flickr.com

Creative Commons searching at Flickr.com

Make sure the checkboxes outlined in red squares are checked before searching for images.

Using Creative Commons license

If you’re operating a totally not-for-profit blog or website, you can use several of the Creative Commons licenses, including the “non-commercial” license.

I don’t recommend that. I recommend using images which allow commercial re-use, possibly with attribution. Here’s why:

It’s funny how you can start with no intention of making money at something you love, then all of sudden, people are waving money at you. Now you have worry about which images you can move forward, and which will have to be replaced with appropriately licensed images.

The licenses I use are either “public domain” or “attribution.”

Complying with Creative Commons Attribution license

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

This is how I’m complying with the Creative Commons attribution license for images I use on WordPress blog posts. When I load the image into the Media Library, I replace the link in the URL box – to the image. The default link is the file in your uploaded image directory on your server (or wherever if you are content distribution network). Here’s a screenshot showing the details:

Attribution link back to Flickr

Attribution link back to Flickr

Easy peasy.

Help me help you

Long time readers know I’m much better at words than I am at images. Help get me up to speed here, so I can spend more time helping you:

  1. Are there any affiliate sales websites for photographs or images? I would love to find a site with images I could both purchase and promote. (Smells like opportunity.)
  2. Are there any other sources for Creative Commons licensed image besides Flickr?
  3. Are there better sites than iStockphoto?

What am I missing?

[Update November 13 2009] As usual, once an article gets “put to bed” all sorts of relevant search results magically apepar. For example, check out Karen Blakeman’s article “Free-to-use images might not be” discussing how to filter for appropriate images on Google.

Filed Under: Creating Content Tagged With: , , ,