Removing footer credits in WordPress themes
Initial Warning: “Before we get started, if your theme contains ‘encrypted’ code, or your theme author threatens legal action against their own customers for removing their precious credit links…use another theme.”
The Initial Child Theme
To override footer credits, create a child theme that enqueues the parent theme stylesheet with required style.css header data. The example uses the Owari theme.
Override the footer.php file
To override template files in child themes, place a file with the same name in the same directory. For example, child-theme/footer.php overrides parent-theme/footer.php.
Adding a Copyright Notice
Rather than removing credits entirely, replace them with a copyright notice:
Copyright © <?php echo date( 'Y' ); ?> <?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?>.This outputs the current year and WordPress site name.