w3layouts – We are a small webshop Startup based out of Nellore, a small town in Andhra Pradesh. We build free premium quality HTML templates where anyone can download our designs and start their website.
BJP’s official site has been down for a while. Yesterday, we were happy to see that they were back, especially when we were told that they chose to use one of W3Layout’s Template.
It was bought to our notice by @ashishdevziners on twitter
The design used by BJP was “Peek” – a Landing Page Bootstrap Responsive Web Template built by W3Layouts, which can be found here. While the design is free to use, it includes a backlink. A small link at the end of the page, which indicates that the design was “design by W3Layouts”.
Build your website using our free WEB designs
We, at W3Layouts, were initially happy and excited that BJP IT cell was using our template, then devastated to see our work being used by BJP removing the backlink without paying, and giving no credit whatsoever to W3Layouts.
If one wishes to remove the backlink, W3Layouts website provides an option to buy the credit for the removal of the backlink by paying Rs 600. (~USD $9).
While the visible backlinks were removed, it was clear that BJP was still using the W3Layouts code as it was evident in the source code of the page.
After we created an archive of their website at archive.org, we took the issue to BJP’s notice through Twitter.
No reply from @BJP4India or BJP’s IT team
After this, they removed the code where ever w3layouts was mentioned.
While they may have changed the code completely now, we are surprised at how a National Political Party headed by a leader who calls himself the “Security Guard (Chowkidaar) of the country” chose to steal a small shop’s sweat and blood and also chose to disregard the claim when found cheating.
Is it that difficult to acknowledge someone’s work?