Phpbb copyright question

[Kurgano]

-Phpbb.com is open source software.
-Its requested that you leave the link to phpbb.com in the footer of all pages.
-Phpbb.com offers some styles for download, such as the very popular "acidTech" series of templates, that contain links to third party sites despite phpbb.com guidelines disallowing regular designers from doing so. example: the "add an image" link of the above named style leads to sending your image to a third party site owned by the guy who made the style... whom is also a key supporter and contributor at phpbb.com. If that site went down your forums will no longer have images in them.
-Phpbbhacks.com runs the same ad campaigns as phpbb.com at the same time, right now its for free forum hosting. The hacks site went as far as to slightly change its template to conceal the adsense image ad.
-countless other links to related sites are present in mods and styles.

In short the more you look the more you find that phpbb.com is in fact a network of sites or in the least a circle of approved sites exists. Some of them, like the image hosting site, are not noticed by the average user who is directed to them.

No big deal but back to the question, since phpbb software is open source does one legaly need to keep the copyright on the templates giving a free link from every page of your site? I asked there but you will not get a straight answer from them. It seems they get great PR on their own in other ways as mentioned above and covert that into great revenue with the gambling links on their main pages.

I appreciate the software but am begining to dislike the double standards I am finding. If phpbb.com is making such sums of money with a university hosted project should they not be paying the webmasters who use the software a small part of the proceeds they are generating? probably not but hey... food for thought.

disclaimer: i'm not making any accusations, i'm wanting to discuss these and other patters as they relate to creating communities. I have not looked into practices of other free forum software providers and don't know if this is the norm. Blah.

[rogerd]

You need to examine their license for what must remain visible... but I doubt if a live link is a legal requirement.

[M_B_Walker]

The phpBB people only request (not require) that you include their copyright notice. Their terms of service specify that you need to include the copyright notice in order to obtain support via their website and forums. If you leave out the copyright notice, they say that no support will be given.

[edited by: M_B_Walker at 3:31 am (utc) on Mar. 18, 2007]