BJP website uses startup’s template without paying or giving credit to them
New Delhi: W3Layouts, a small Nellore-based startup, alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party used one of its templates for the party’s new website without a backlink crediting the company. The plagiarism charge also questioned the party’s claim to be a “chowkidar” against wrongdoing.
2 weeks after Hack and total shutdown, https://t.co/PotfqxPYVK website is back online using the template provided by my startup @W3layouts pic.twitter.com/X5mLaAaT4P
— Hidayath (@w3hidayath) March 22, 2019
The BJP’s website was down for weeks after it was hacked. Therefore, when it came back, it caught the attention of many people and the alleged plagiarism was noticed.
While the startup was initially pleased to learn that the BJP had picked one of its templates for its new website, it later tweeted its displeasure for not given credits.
2 weeks after Hack, https://t.co/sO04WhhPra website is back online with w3layouts template @W3layouts provides free web templates @w3hidayath @BJP4India @fs0c131y @ndtv @timesofindia @TheQuint @republic @scroll_in @newslaundry @Airavta @rupasubramanya @ashoswai @aartic02 pic.twitter.com/PrwHGcxPSQ
— W3layouts (@W3layouts) March 22, 2019
@BJP4India Please add "Designed by w3layouts" to the footer with the backlink means hyper link to https://t.co/1p3w6sQoP3. not "Design W3layouts" or "w3layouts" plain text. Thanks for understanding pic.twitter.com/7UK6PlaVn9
— W3layouts (@W3layouts) March 22, 2019
all we wanted was a "thanks for the template", and we would've given you the permission to remove the backlink... But instead, you decided to spoil the good looking webpage by removing our code. @BJP4India pic.twitter.com/FnBcHhFmjS
— W3layouts (@W3layouts) March 22, 2019
all we wanted was a "thanks for the template", and we would've given you the permission to remove the backlink... But instead, you decided to spoil the good looking webpage by removing our code. @BJP4India pic.twitter.com/FnBcHhFmjS
— W3layouts (@W3layouts) March 22, 2019
Amit Malviya, in charge of the BJP’s national information and technology wing, said, “Their code was dropped after they insisted on a backlink as it is not something we do in normal course. We had, in fact, offered to mention their name but since it didn’t find favour, we preferred to work with an alternate solution. We are not using their template.”
W3Layout’s founder Hidayath, while taking to media, emphasized that the licence agreement was clear that “you are not allowed to remove the backlink to W3Layouts in (the) template unless you have paid for (the) template,” and further added, “… They never communicated about that and they started making changes. Only text is not enough; it should be a hyperlink to W3Layouts. After noticing they are adding only text, we tweeted what to do.”
Leave Your Response