I was browsing my stats and noticed an incoming link to my theme. Always curious as to what kind of sites used my theme I checked it out. I won’t provide the link here because the site I found was disgusting. The site is supposed to be an alternative “news” site but really was nothing more than a racist and bigoted site that talks about “niggers”, “kikes”, “evil Methodists”, and “fags.” Reading the titles of these posts made me want to throw up, and the actual posts and comments were worse. I guess the drawback to releasing a theme is you have no say in what kind of site decides to use it. I, for one, am disgusted by it’s use on this hate speech site.

EDIT: Just an update, I contacted the site’s host, DreamHost and they said they support free speech. This is understandable. I, however, doubt it has anything to do with free speech and more to do with them making money from a client. That’s just how DH operates. Even if the hate speech can incite hate crimes (which, if you look at the wikipedia entry posted in the comments by Mike, actually has happened). This lead me to post some terms in which I explain I have no affiliation with the content on sites using my theme. Kind of an obvious thing, but I just want to cover my bases.

4 replies
  1. Mike Goodspeed
    Mike Goodspeed says:

    I’m smart so I figured out what the site is.

    How ironic is it that this guy makes a Kirksville-related site?

    A quick whois on the domain says that it’s registered to A Bigot who runs some network of hate websites. If you read some of the stuff that he wrote, it’s crazy. I figured it’d just be a cut’n’paste job with fill-in-the-blanks, but it is actually a severe hate-website from the city that I went to College in. How sad.

  2. shep
    shep says:

    yeah, that’s what drew me to the site originally, figuring oh cool, a kirksville site, since i live in MO, i’ll check it out. big mistake.

  3. Phoenix
    Phoenix says:

    I am pretty sure that an email to that site’s host would get that trash tossed off their server.

    Are you sure there’s nothing in the CC license that allows you to limit use of your products to legal sites?

    You can always throw up a disclaimer for anyone who wanders over to your site from his, so they can learn there is no affiliation between you and him. Throw up, heh.

  4. Mike Goodspeed
    Mike Goodspeed says:

    Re: Legality

    Freedom of speech is about as letting the man stand on the hill and shout things at the top of his lungs that makes your blood boil and makes your hairs stand on end. Sometimes, free speech is about standing on another hill and screaming at the top of your lungs too.

    Hatred and pornography are the prices we pay for free speech, and for my money, the price is absolutely worth it.

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