customizing themes

Depends on the license the theme was originally published under.

How do I find out? There is no Read me file in the folder. It’s one of the themes in the WordPress theme directory. I went to the site of the submitter, but can’t find any info on license there either.

Usually has the license in style.css. If not there, contact the theme author (via the link you want to delete).

I recommend changing the designer’s footer link to read, “Based on (name of theme) by (link to theme designer)

You could then add a link to your own site in case you make your modification available to the public.

In the style sheet where the original theme name and the name of the theme designer are located, modify that to read, “Based on (theme name) by (theme designer’s name and URL).

Doing stuff like this gives you a good rep, and in a community like this a good rep goes a long way.

I usually follow the guidelines mythusmage suggested. Unless I *really* break apart a theme, I keep the credits in the style.css intact. If they’ve included a link in the footer (and assuming no “directions” re: terms of use), I’ll keep it if I haven’t changed much.

At the very least, the “Based on…” idea is always a good one, considering the fact that even if you feel like you’ve changed the entire look, you’ve likely kept good chunks of code that someone else may have taken awhile to work out.

In the case of the original question, I’d probably use “Based on…” in the footer, especially if one exists currently.

I actually hacked away at my theme and combined two themes into one. After I was done, my theme doesn’t look anything like it did in the beginning. So what I have done is in the footer, placed a string of text which tells users which themes my theme was based on and the theme names are links to the author’s respective web sites.

I think what I did is ok.

Those are really good suggestions. Many thanks all for your help and advice!