Free Thesis Download – Beware!

Written by Costa on October 8, 2009 - 23 Comments
Categories: Wordpress Themes

This blog here gets so many queries on the term “Free Thesis Download” or “Download Thesis For Free” and many similar terms from bloggers not wanting to pay for the Theme. In all fairness, paying $87 for a Theme that you are allowed to use only in a single blog is a little bit on the high side, but as a Thesis user myself, I can safely say that after using it for sometime, you will discover that the money spent is well worth it. I have never come across a WordPress Theme that can give you so much leverage and control over the look and the overall layout. All which you can do by yourself without getting into too much trouble.

You might be wondering that since I like the Thesis so much, why am I not using it here. Yes, I did thought of that, but the blog which I am presently using the Theme is doing so well by itself that I do not want to change to another Theme so I can use it here. I am still hanging on to the Singles license, I can be naughty but I don’t see the need to. Furthermore, this blog showcases Theme modifications, so it would be more appropriate to have a totally unique Theme modded and created by myself.

There have been many comments which I have deleted and blacklisted calling me stupid for asking people to buy the Theme when it can be downloaded freely in many places. Really, I do realize that the Thesis Theme can be downloaded illegally in many warez sites or sites offering free torrents. I will not be telling you where. but if you do find those free downloads yourself, ask yourself this question before jumping for joy.

“Why are they giving away the Thesis Theme for free?”

I always believed in the fact that there are no free lunches and dinners in this world. Whenever someone you hardly know wants to take you out for lunch, there will be always some hidden agenda behind that meal. Likewise, when people offer you something for free, like the Thesis Theme because they know millions are looking for it, you better think twice before downloading and using it.

Just to kill my curiosity and confirm my suspicions, I downloaded a copy if the Thesis 1.5.1 from one of the warez sites. In every “free” download, the first place you have to check is the footer php file. The original footer php of the Thesis Theme has just one visible line of codes.

The illegal copy looks like this, a whole page of mumbo jumbo encrypted malicious codes that links to god knows where.

click to enlarge

I do not know, but it is also highly probable that if you remove those codes, the Theme will not work as it should.

Did some further digging, and I found more extra files inside. There’s an extra logo file in the main folder. The css folder inside the lib folder contains an extra text file. Inside the script folder, there is another similar text file. Another one is also embeded inside the rotator folder. So in all there are 4 extra files which you should not have if you bought the original. I doubt these text files will do much harm if left alone, but still, it should not be there at all.

The malicious codes in the footer file does the biggest damage to your blog. It might be linking to some illegal sites like those peddling porn or whatever and before you know it, you will get penalized by Google for selling illegal links. So don’t be surprise if you see your Page Rank getting blanked out and all your keywords getting de-indexed after using the Theme.

My advise is, why put yourself at risk over $87 bucks. If you do not have the money now, you can always save up and get the original at a later date. The Thesis Theme will be here for a long time to come so there is actually no hurry.

In most cases, I think it’s not the money. Maybe it’s that “feel good” feeling over the ability to get something for free when others have to pay for it. Maybe it’s the feeling of self satisfaction knowing that you have the “power” to use something that you are not suppose to use and nothing can be done to stop you. Well then, if that’s the way you feel and that’s the way you choose to live your life, please go ahead. Go and download those Free Thesis Themes.

For those who want the ORIGINAL CLEAN VERSION CLICK HERE

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Article by Costa Fong

@costafong

Who loves to mod and mess up WordPress Themes.

Costa has written 557 articles here. Some are awesome, some are lame.

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23 Responses to “Free Thesis Download – Beware!”

Comments

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MK

October 19, 2009 at 2:06 pm

Yes, I’m looking for a free theme thats similar to Thesis but not becuz’ of the reasons you mentioned. ‘Actually, I have the original but can’t upgrade to the dev lic since I lost my job a few weeks ago. I’m kicking myself for not getting it when I had the chance, but I only had 1 blog at the time.

The agreement states you can have 2 personal uses. Since purchasing almost a year ago, I now have about 10 niche blogs and I’ve tried other themes but NOTHING can compare to Thesis. I’m so bummed out, it really is the best theme ever! Guess I’ll just have to deal with it until I can get a job:=(

Reply
- Costa
  
  October 19, 2009 at 4:03 pm
  
  No worries MK, the 10 niche blogs will be making you money in time so you can upgrade. LOL.
  
  If it is any consolation, I also have the single license, but then I do not have that many blogs.
  
  Reply
Ramses

November 3, 2009 at 2:51 am

Hi Costa, I pointed a link to your great article from my new website. I’ve also seen the suspicious code inside and surprisingly it worked (relatively) fine after deleting it… But in the end you never know with those eval(XXX) things so my advice is to stay away from that sh*t and go for the real deal: Thesis Developer Option rocks

Reply
- Costa
  
  November 3, 2009 at 8:54 am
  
  Hi Ramses,
  
  Thanks for the plug. I think everyone needs to know this before using those “black hearted” themes.
  
  I think they too realize that many will detect those malicious codes and delete them, but I dread to think what else they have included other than those which are obvious to the eye. There are scripts that can be so well camouflaged that it takes special software to detect them. So why risk it.
  
  Like you said in your latest post, go earn some money then buy the original. That’s the safest route.
  
  Reply
  - Ramses
    
    November 5, 2009 at 5:21 am
    
    Yep. And as I said in my latest post, everybody who already owns some kind of website can earn the money for Thesis with Thesis itself. So nobody should be saying: “I don’t have money, so I will steal that thing.”
    
    Reply
Kitchen Wizard

November 4, 2009 at 6:06 am

Thank you for the post… I was wondering about that… Geez I found yours before actually download it. I’ll buy an official version.

Reply
- Costa
  
  November 4, 2009 at 9:04 am
  
  Kitchen Wizard,
  
  That’s a very wise decision and you do have a fantastic blog going over there. Congrats!
  
  Reply
User

November 11, 2009 at 10:25 am

Seriously? This is trivial to find and detect, and the two I downloaded were perfectly fine. In fact, I doubt whether this is actually true or not, or if you created the “malicious” footer to scare people. Don’t think this is going to deter most people.

Reply
- Costa
  
  November 11, 2009 at 11:03 am
  
  Well, congrats to you for getting a ‘perfectly fine copy’. I sense that you feel really proud of yourself for your “knowledge and power’ to find and use some stolen product.
  
  As mentioned in my last paragraph, I certainly do not have the power to stop and deter people like you from doing illegal things. That’s for sure.
  
  Enjoy your ‘free thesis theme’.
  
  BTW, those codes are real.
  
  Reply
Anonymous

November 29, 2009 at 5:43 pm

You could copy what is between the quotes of the base64_decode function, Google search for “base 64 decoder”, and just paste into the decoder form to convert the text so that it’s readable. Then we could see what the malicious code is trying to do.

Reply
Isaac | GoBlogger

December 28, 2009 at 9:16 pm

Agreed. Bad guys are always find a way to do bad things, including via giving away premium themes like this. Those encoded codes are encoded for a reason, potentially not good. They can do more harm than good. Stay sharp!

Reply
Pritam Nagrale

February 8, 2010 at 12:12 pm

Yes, you are right. You should always go for the original. Thesis theme is one of the best theme available for wordpress with many inbuilt features.

Reply
earthmann

March 14, 2010 at 3:01 am

The whole “think about it- why would somebody give something away that millions of people are wanting” is a bit alarmist.

Your statement could be said of 99% of the internet.

I’m not saying there aren’t bogus copies floating around, but I suspect they have a lot more to do with the Thesis designers thwarting piracy than anything else.

Reply