My store theme was purchased through Shopify, by a company that is partners with Shopify. They then developed the theme to my specifications. I paid £5000 for this service in 2016, 6 years ago. Yesterday I received a DMCA take down notice for the store theme, stating that it hasn’t been bought through Shopify and it infringes copyright. I’m perplexed. So far the only advice I have received is to remove the template, which I can’t and will not do given the amount I spent on it. Has this happened to anyone else?
Not only that, the company I used to develop the website purchased the theme (I just sent them the money once they invoiced me) so surely it is down to them not to infringe copyright? Any advice would be appreciated as it’s causing a lot of stress!
Sad to know about that. The company that developed the website has not used paid theme. Instead, they must have used the pirated theme which can be easily taken from any Shopify website. That’s why Shopify is flagging all websites using the pirated theme.
If you have paid that agency the price for the theme, You need to contact them again and ask them to buy it for you and transfer all website content to that theme. It is their fault and they need to amend that.
@G4als - company must have used pirated theme, contact them and ask them purchase theme. This has happened in the past. Companies use pirated/cracked versions and then store owner gets the notice. Which theme are you using for your site?
You have an option to purchase the licence yourself but since you paid to company, you can contact them and ask them to purchase it for you.
I definitely understand your concern in this situation, especially considering the investment made into your current store theme. I want to clarify some of the information already shared here for you so that you can get this resolved as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
First step is to find out what theme file you are using. Did the DMCA notice specify by chance? If not, and if you still have access to your store admin please go to Online Store > Theme > Edit Theme and click the 3 dots in upper left corner of the theme editor to view your theme details.
The top portion should show the theme file name, developer and file version. The View Documentation link or Get Support link should link you to the theme developer directly. If you can share that information with us here we can help you find your theme file and connect with the developer to finalize a license purchase, either by yourself or the developers you previously used.
A legitimate theme file purchase for a theme from the Shopify Theme Store will include a billing invoice in your admin for the purchase of the theme file. This is the proof of purchase and ensures you have a licensed theme file for your store. If the theme was purchased from outside the theme store then a proof of purchase that shows payment for this theme for your store from the developers directly is required.
Unfortunately, some bad actors copy and reuse the theme code across multiple stores. This goes against the license and terms of agreement of the theme file usage. Each license is good for one store only and if duplicated without a license and used on another store, that store can be subject to a DMCA notice from the developers.
The simplest method of resolving this will be to confirm what theme file you are using and purchase a licensed copy from the theme store. Once you have a license attached to your merchant account you can continue using the customized theme file you have. You do not need to switch out the theme file or transfer your changes, so long as the license is purchased for a version of that theme.
From there you can have the time you need to contact your original developer for payment of the theme license or take appropriate actions with them about this.
Alternatively, you can publish a different theme file on your store until you can resolve the issue of the theme license with your previous developer.
Thank you for your advice. I have contacted the company and am hoping we can resolve this amicably. Meanwhile, I contacted Shopify help who told me to reply to the original email from Shopify legal. I replied to Shopify legal and they’ve literally sent me the same email again. I now can’t seem to access my website from the backend, so how the hell am I meant to sort this out? What’s even worse is that I used a Shopify approved partner and found the web developer through Shopify. They also only gave me one business day to sort this out, and are treating me like I’m in the wrong when I wouldn’t even know how to purchased an unlicensed theme in the first place!
Sorry to copy and paste my response from above! Thank you for your advice. I have contacted the company and am hoping we can resolve this amicably. Meanwhile, I contacted Shopify help who told me to reply to the original email from Shopify legal. I replied to Shopify legal and they’ve literally sent me the same email again. I now can’t seem to access my website from the backend, so how the hell am I meant to sort this out? What’s even worse is that I used a Shopify approved partner and found the web developer through Shopify. They also only gave me one business day to sort this out, and are treating me like I’m in the wrong when I wouldn’t even know how to purchased an unlicensed theme in the first place!
Thank you for that additional information. Generally when these situations happen the online store itself may no longer be publicly accessible but you should still have access to the store admin. I don’t have the ability to review your store account myself or look into the actions taken by our legal team, so please feel free to correct me if you don’t have access to your store admin at this time.
I know this situation is not great and that you have been placed in the middle of a problem you didn’t realize existed. If your developers did not purchase a proper license for the theme they provided to you then you should definitely take recourse against them for that. I understand that you were not aware of any concerns about the theme license before this and I can imagine it has all been a bit surprising to discover this.
As the merchant you are the owner of the store and responsible for all resources, images, files and content on your website. Without a valid theme license you are not able to use this theme file on your store. The rights to the content of the base theme belong with the theme developers and each individual store using this theme must have a license to do so. Since the developer has submitted a DMCA notice for this theme file and at this time you are not able to provide a valid theme license, our legal team has to take action.
I know that as the merchant you did not create this situation intentionally and that you relied on the developers you hired to ensure that this theme had the correct license for your store. It is an unfortunate situation and one I hope will be able to be resolved amicably with your developers. Hopefully this was just an oversight with the developers you worked with.
I also wanted to share that it may be a good idea to make a backup of your current theme file if you haven’t already. If you have access to do so in your admin you can go to Online Store > Themes > Click the three dots menu next to the theme file and choose “Download Theme File”. This way you have an offline backup of this customized theme.
Hey Shay - the same thing happened to me yesterday BUT I bought the theme OFF Shopify as I created the website myself . Can you help me please as none of the legal accounts team or chat have given me an explanation. I just rebought the app because I felt forced into a corner as they locked ( blacked out ) my theme … And I paid 380 US$ for a theme which I already owned.
I have had the same thing happen. NO help. I rebought the theme as they said . BUT I already bought the theme they said was in breach in 2017/18 so I am perplexed. I went int to customise and poof it reappeared … did you get a clarity?
BTW ( might be something or noting but I am an avid freedom fighter online, and I have been targeted / locked out on other apps ) So, I am wondering if this is a censorship thing, by Shopify. Am I being targeted? AKA Shutting bank accounts, social accounts of freedom peeps etc
HI THERE, Did you replicate the original site with ONE purchased Theme? That happened to me too recently. Maybe cause you have two sites for different countries, but you only bought ONE version of the theme …
My store has been locked out today as well. I had received emails with a “Hi there” salutation which I ignored. All other emails received from shopify before has been in my name so I thought it was a scam. It was also mentioning an impulse theme which is not the theme we have. We use a dawn theme that had been customized. I sent emails after I get locked out and all I get is the same responses to reply to the email. What should I do? Dawn was offered as a free theme. Shopify should have just charge it then than going this route.
Thank you for sharing those details. I can confirm that the Dawn theme is absolutely a free theme and costs nothing to use it on your store.
The best thing I can suggest is to reply back to the email you received and ask for more information about the flag on your published theme. Was the Dawn theme you are using downloaded from the Shopify theme store and then customized? Or did you receive the theme from outside of Shopify?
I don’t have access to merchant accounts so I won’t be able to review this for you.
I emailed back to the demand and all it said is purchase this impulse theme or delete all the themes and let us know. I had been doing business online since 2003 and I have learned to fortify my presence online from past lessons learned. Shopify has been the worse of all that experience. It’s highway robbery at best. Good thing I have my Volusion site duplicating shopify and our store fronts database not on shopify. I am more fortunate than most, I just had to edit website on google and good to go. Can’t put all your eggs in one basket.
I CAN’T TELL IF THIS IS A SHOPIFY GREED THING OR A THEME COMPANY THING. I have used Out of the Sandbox for 5+ years. I even won a contest and they gave me 2 free themes. I asked them on multiple occasions if I need to purchase a new theme for each Shopify customer. They told me I only need to purchase a new theme when I want to update a theme since it would need to be registered through the app? I asked them this because I want to make sure I am using their themes in a way that they are ok with. I also customize the themes quite a bit so usually I buy the theme, make changes that all customers in my opinion want and then use that theme and then a year or two later I buy a new version so I have the most updated theme and so on. This is going to be not very fun to have to do all that work per project or I guess I might buy the theme and use the older theme that I have already customized. Since Out of the Sandbox now puts there themes outside of the Theme / App store I am wondering if Shopify is upset about that and this is a way of hurting certain customers. Shopify did this with the Subscription Apps. I also build WordPress websites and the themes I use are a yearly subscription for all themes? I wonder if that is a better model for some of these theme companies.
Regardless, Shopify or Theme Companies did this wrong. They give you 2 days and then lock you out? They should give 30 days.
I think I may start looking at other theme companies now that this is the case. There has been a great deal of improvements with other theme companies and again not sure if this is from the Shopify or the Theme Companies.
I just wish when I reached out to Out of the Sandbox / Pixel Union they would have told me but that make me think this is a Shopify thing.
