Branding Free Instructions 
Warning:
Please note that you are not permitted to remove the vBulletin branding / copyright unless you have purchased the branding-free option. The costs are $170 on a per license basis and is a one time fee.
Removing the branding without permission will result in having your license being revoked.
If you have purchased the branding option after installing vB then you should not need to remove the branding manually. However if for some reason you need to do this manually here are the instructions.

Here are the steps to remove all the public branding from vB4:

1. Edit the footer template here:

Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Edit Templates -> footer

And remove this section:
<div id="footer_copyright" class="shade footer_copyright">
    <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->
    {vb:rawphrase powered_by_vbulletin}
    <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->    
</div>
NOTE: You need to edit the footer template this way:

Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Edit Templates -> footer

2. In your headinclude template remove this line:
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin {vb:raw vboptions.templateversion}" />
3. And remove this from the printthread template:
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin {vb:raw vboptions.templateversion}" />
And this:
<div id="footer_copyright" class="shade">
    <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->
    {vb:rawphrase powered_by_vbulletin}
    <!-- Do not remove this copyright notice -->    
</div>
4. Change this phrase:

x_powered_by_vbulletin

From this:

{1} - powered by vBulletin

To this:

{1}

5. Then, edit the vbulletin_message phrase and change this:

vBulletin Message

...to whatever you want.

6. To change the default metatags in vBulletin, you would do so under the General Options

Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> General Settings -> Meta Keywords and Meta Description

7. And finally, in the file /archive/index.php you need to remove this section:
<div id=\"copyright\">$vbphrase[vbulletin_copyright]</div>
</div>
Notes:

A. To edit Templates:

Admin CP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Edit Templates

B. To edit Phrases:

Admin CP -> Languages & Phrases -> Search in Phrases -> phrasename (Phrase Variable Name Only)

Click on edit, and place the new phrase in the available language text boxes.
Warning:
Please note that if you are not permitted to remove the vBulletin branding / copyright unless you have purchased the branding-free option. The costs are $170 on a per license basis and is a one time fee.
Removing the branding without permission will result in having your license being revoked.
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