Editing Links in the Footer of WordPress Themes with Base64 Encrypted Code?

Some WordPress themes have their links encrypted in the footer and I am not able to edit them if I want to edit the links. This is the example code I found:

<?php
eval(base64_decode('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'));?>

Does any one know how to find the footer link we want from them and edit them?

Well, this is the output from that function:

?>      

        <div class="clear"></div>



    </div>

    <!-- /Main -->



    <!-- Footer -->

    <div id="footer">

    <?php the_time('Y'); ?> <?php bloginfo('name'); ?> .  WordPress . <?php if(is_home()) : ?><a href="http://wordpressthemesforfree.com/" title="Wordpress themes">Wordpress themes</a><?php endif; ?></div>

    <!-- Footer -->



</div></div></div>

<!-- /Page -->





<?php wp_footer(); ?>
</body>



</html> <?

So, if you want to get rid of that base64 encoded line, and use this, do it. I think that was just their way of keeping total non-programmers from messing with the attribution links. If the theme is GPL licensed, then you are under no obligation to keep any part of that code there.

And there’s a pretty strong case to be made that themes are GPL by their very nature (which is not to say the other side doesn’t have strong arguments too. However, as Mike pointed out in the comments, this question will not be answered until someone litigates, so let’s just leave that whole argument out of this question).

EDIT

To get the above output, I did this:

<pre>
<?php

$out = base64_decode('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');

echo str_replace( '<', '&lt;', $out );

?>
</pre>