Feedback on privacy violating scraper checking for copyright

[SurvivalServers]

I got a presumably automated email yesterday that said we removed the copyright from ip board. This was done only temporarily because of a new theme we installed.

Not only was this message weird, it is a violation of privacy and worded defensively. I don't appreciate this as a long term customer who understands the rules before purchasing.

Please do not scrape our website content or include an option to disallow this. The "watchdog" feel I get from this service is not sitting well with me.

Also the lengths at which you guys go to hide and auto inject the code into footer content is a bit annoying to work around.

The copyright removal should be a good faith deal not a blatant money grab or free, forced promotion. Love the boards and the constant support but do not appreciate the babysitting and lack of trust. If you need, raise the prices. This type of action is a red flag that makes me raise an eyebrow on how our forums are being used, access to our data, and monitoring that we do not want. My expectation from a self hosted solution is that it is a completely hands off setup.

[bfarber]

I apologize if you felt at all attacked or annoyed at an email you received from us. I just wanted to clarify that no, we do not automatically "scrape" or otherwise inspect your site (or any other site using our software). Sometimes missing copyrights are noticed by technical support staff, sometimes they are reported to us, but in any event we have no automated processes in place to detect this sort of thing.

[SurvivalServers]

Thank you for the reply. If it's not an automated process then it for sure is a job of some employee triggered by some actions (still, watchdog behavior)

I feel like the timing is too close to the purchase of a new theme and our upgrade from v3 to v4 that triggered your team to check.