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Changing the footer & copyright

Changing the footer & copyright

path-logo.pngThe following question is very often asked: "How do I change the 'Copyright 2000 - 2005 Miro International Pty Ltd.' or 'Powered by Joomla! - Copyright © 2005 - All Rights Reserved.' text that appears at the bottom of all of the pages in my site so that it has MY content copyright showing? "


Copyright on your site:: some general remarks
Your site is yours! Nobody can tell you (besides lawmakers) what to do with it. With both Joomla! and Mambo you have an obligation to maintain the copyright notices within the code but you do not have to have them showing in the generated code that displays your web pages. Joomla! and Mambo are both released under a GNU/GPL License. You can read more information about this license here...http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

The O'Reilly Open Book Project has more useful information here.. Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/osfreesoft/book/ )

Ways to Change the display of the Copyright Notice
There are several ways to change the display of the copyright notice on your Mambo or Joomla! website. We highlight five of them:

  • Change your template's index.php file.
  • Change the /includes/footer.php file.
  • Change the language files.
  • Change the /includes/version.php
  • Make a module to include your own content copyright notice.

How are they inter-related?
Each template consists of:

  • an index.php (in your template folder, not the one in the root:: index.php)
  • a css file usually template.css.css located in the root
  • image files in /templates//images//includes/footer.php which is part of the distribution of the "core" Joomla-application.
Your template's index.php file ''includes'' the core "footer.php" into the final output of the page. "footer.php" retrieves the copyright text from the languages files.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the several scenario's?

1. Change includes/footer.php in a way that it does not retrieve the copyright info from the language files. The alternative here is to enter your own specifics:
Advantage: This is quick and easy. The change affects the output of any template you use that calls this file (see #2, below).
Disadvantage: The includes/footer.php file is part of the core distribution - it gets overwritten when you upgrade your favourite CMS.
Details:
<div align="center"><?php echo $_VERSION->COPYRIGHT; ?></div>
<div align="center"><?php echo $_VERSION->URL; ?></div>
Use find & replace to remove these lines and replace with your own html or php or entirely remove them depending on your need.

2. Change your template's index.php in a way it does not include "includes/footer.php" and simply place your text straight into the template.
Advantage: New versions of the CMS do not necessarily affect template files, so once your template changes are made they are not changed by any upgrading of the core files.
Disadvantage: Should you change your templates you will need to make the same modifications to your new template. You also need to look at your template's css to see what styles your template uses in this footer area. Depending on your skill with .css, removing the standard footer and writing your own can be tricky.
Details:
Use find & replace to remove this line from the file /templates/index.php
<?php include_once( $mosConfig_absolute_path .'/includes/footer.php' ); ?>
3. Edit the language file.
The file '/includes/footer.php' retrieves data directly from the language files.
Advantage: This can be used to change the way the footer.php displays information.
Disadvantage: This method, while possible, is not recommended unless you are very familiar with working directly in core files. Any upgrade to the CMS will overwrite the changes you have made.
Details:
Edit the language file your installation uses. For English language installations this file is '/languages/english.php'

4. Change the 'includes/version file'
Advantage: This is easy to implement and works well. You can keep the footer without making any changes to your template and it will show your own and personal Copyright notice.
Disadvantage: When a new release arrives and you update your CMS you will have to do it again.
Details: Edit the file '/includes/version.php' and change the information that you will find around lines 29 & 31 (Joomla! version 1.0.7)

With your text editor, open the includes/version.php file and towards the bottom you'll see:
/** @var string Copyright Text */
var $COPYRIGHT = 'Copyright 2000 - 2005 Miro International Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.';
/** @var string URL */
var $URL = '<a href="http://www.mamboserver.com">Mambo</a> is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.';
Example:
Change: 'Copyright 2000 - 2005 Miro International Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.'; to 'Copyright xxxx Your Site Information Here. All rights reserved.';
Change: '<a href="http://www.mamboserver.com">Mambo</a> is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.'; to '<a href="http://www.yoursite.com">SiteName</a>';

5. Make a module to include your own content copyright notice.
Advantage: This is not overwritten when your CMS is upgraded.
Disadvantage: Not so easy to do unless you are experienced in making and positioning modules. It still requires changes to your template/index.php.
Details:
Remove the 'includes/footer.php' statement in the bottom of your template's index.php and create a new module position in its place.
Make a new module and create your own copyright notice inside that module, then assign it to that new module position.

Last but not least:
You are NOT required to show the visible Joomla! or Mambo copyright notice on the bottom of a site.
It is NOT illegal to remove the generated copyright notice.
What the GPL forbids is removal of copyright notices in the SOURCE CODE.
The copyright notices that appear in the source code (e.g. *.php files) look similar to the following:
* @version $Id: COPYRIGHT.php 1642 2006-01-04 01:20:09Z rhuk $
* @package Joomla
* @copyright Copyright (C) 2005 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.
* @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU/GPL, see LICENSE.php
* Joomla! is free software. This version may have been modified pursuant
* to the GNU General Public License, and as distributed it includes or
* is derivative of works licensed under the GNU General Public License or
* other free or open source software licenses.
* See COPYRIGHT.php for copyright notices and details.
You are NOT allowed to remove these notices!

Please Note: add-on components, modules, and other extensions to Joomla! or Mambo come with their own copyright and legal notices. The information given above only applies to the basic Joomla! and Mambo core installations. For information about whether you can legally remove the copyright of 3rd party add-ons, you will need to refer to the information they include and, if in doubt, contact the developer before making any changes.