Copyright for the website

if someone took the time to make the template
they give it to everyone to use
but they ask that you keep the copyright
that way they get a little credit

its a fair deal

if you want to remove it
then contact the author
and ask them
they may ask for a small payment
or a link to their site

again its a small favor to return because
good templates can take days or weeks to make

Whether you remove it or not – the copyright is still hers! It will never be yours, unless you buy it ??

Under what license was the theme released?
What is exactly in the footer?
Maybe a link to the theme would be helpful to answer your question… Vague questions get vague answers.

What a copyright does is protect the creator of the work against unlicensed / unauthorized use of what has been created. There can be multiple copyrights within a single presentation. For instance, in a book with illustrations, one copyright notice would identify the author of the text while another copyright statement would identify the artist of the illustrations. The artist obviously can’t claim copyright ownership of the text, just because of a contribution of art, nor can the writer claim ownership of the illustrations – it’s fine for both to co-exist within the same production.

So … speaking as a mere writer and author who’s been dealing with this for 25 years or so, not as a lawyer … I believe you can add your own copyright notice and still leave the designer’s in place. Something like: “All text copyright (circle c) ‘yourname’ 2007”.

What the designer mainly wants is credit (which is different from copyright), and especially for someone else not to claim credit.

| Freedom-Green & Widgetized by Tina Silva
Freedom Blue Plus improved by Eyoung. Kudos to Frank Helmschrott, Michael and Fredrik for the original Design.

this is the copyright says..

https://themes.wordpress.net/columns/3-columns/2305/freedom-green-widgetized/
This is the theme which I am talking about.

Now, none of those lines are really “copyright” notices.
The commented warning (<!– DO NOT DELETE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING LINKS AS YOU WILL BE VIOLATING COPYRIGHT LAWS!! –>) is a nonsense in this context: the theme doesn’t have a license or a readme attached to it mentioning the license type.

Requiring links to the author is NOT copyright. It has nothing to do with copyright. Maybe the theme author needs some education…