This story has been up to date all through with extra particulars because the story has developed. We are going to proceed to take action because the case and dispute are ongoing.
The world of WordPress, one of the vital fashionable applied sciences for creating and internet hosting web sites, goes by way of a really heated controversy. The core situation is the battle between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts web sites constructed on WordPress.
WordPress expertise is open supply and free, and it powers an enormous chunk of the web — round 40% of internet sites. Web sites can host their very own WordPress occasion or use an answer supplier like Automattic or WP Engine for a plug-and-play answer.
In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a weblog submit calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress.” He criticized the host for disabling the flexibility for customers to see and observe the revision historical past for each submit. Mullenweg believes this function is on the “core of the user promise of protecting your data” and mentioned that WP Engine turns it off by default to save cash.
He additionally referred to as out WP Engine investor Silver Lake and mentioned they don’t contribute sufficiently to the open supply venture and that WP Engine’s use of the “WP” model has confused clients into believing it’s a part of WordPress.
The authorized battle
In reply, WP Engine despatched a cease-and-desist letter to Mullenweg and Automattic, asking them to withdraw their feedback. It additionally mentioned that its use of the WordPress trademark was lined beneath honest use.
The corporate claimed that Mullenweg had mentioned he would take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” towards WP Engine except it agreed to pay “a significant percentage of its revenues for a license to the WordPress trademark.”
In response, Automattic despatched its personal cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, saying that they’d breached WordPress and WooCommerce trademark utilization guidelines.
The WordPress Basis additionally modified its Trademark Coverage web page and referred to as out WP Engine, alleging the internet hosting service has confused customers.
“The abbreviation ‘WP’ is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is ‘WordPress Engine’ and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress,” the up to date web page reads.
WP Engine ban and trademark battle
Mullenweg then banned WP Engine from accessing the assets of WordPress.org. Whereas parts like plug-ins and themes are beneath open supply license, suppliers like WP Engine need to run a service to fetch them, which isn’t lined beneath the open supply license.
This broke quite a lot of web sites and prevented them from updating plug-ins and themes. It additionally left a few of them open to safety assaults. The neighborhood was not happy with this strategy of leaving small web sites helpless.
In response to the incident, WP Engine mentioned in a submit that Mullenweg had misused his management of WordPress to intervene with WP Engine clients’ entry to WordPress.org.
“Matt Mullenweg’s unprecedented and unwarranted action interferes with the normal operation of the entire WordPress ecosystem, impacting not just WP Engine and our customers, but all WordPress plugin developers and open source users who depend on WP Engine tools like ACF,” WP Engine mentioned.
On September 27, WordPress.org lifted the ban briefly, permitting WP Engine to entry assets till October 1.
Mullenweg wrote a weblog submit clarifying that the battle is simply towards WP Engine over emblems. He mentioned Automattic has been making an attempt to dealer a trademark licensing deal for a very long time, however WP Engine’s solely response has been to “string us along.”
On September 30, a day earlier than the WordPress.org deadline for the ban on WP Engine, the internet hosting firm up to date its web site’s footer to make clear it isn’t straight affiliated with the WordPress Basis or owns the WordPress commerce.
“WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the community of WordPress® users. The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Uses of the WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® names in this website are for identification purposes only and do not imply an endorsement by WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc.,” the up to date description on the location learn.
The corporate additionally modified its plan names from “Essential WordPress,” “Core WordPress,” and “Enterprise WordPress” to “Essential,” “Core,” and “Enterprise.”
WP Engine mentioned in an announcement that it modified these phrases to moot Automattic’s claims.
“We, like the rest of the WordPress community, use the WordPress mark to describe our business. Automattic’s suggestion that WPE needs a license to do that is simply wrong, and reflects a misunderstanding of trademark law. To moot its claimed concerns, we have eliminated the few examples Automattic gave in its September 23rd letter to us,” an organization spokesperson instructed TechCrunch.
On October 1, the corporate posted on X that it has efficiently deployed its personal answer for updating plug-ins and themes.
On October 15, TechCrunch reported that Automattic deliberate to outline emblems since early this yr involving “nice and not nice” attorneys, in line with an inside weblog submit written by the corporate’s then chief authorized officer. The submit additionally talked about a method to file extra emblems, which the inspiration finally did in July.
The WordPress neighborhood and different tasks really feel this might additionally occur to them and need clarification from Automattic, which has an unique license to the WordPress trademark. The neighborhood can be asking about clear steerage round how they will and may’t use “WordPress.”
The WordPress Basis, which owns the trademark, has additionally filed to trademark “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” Builders and suppliers are frightened that if these emblems are granted, they could possibly be used towards them.
Builders have expressed considerations over counting on industrial open supply merchandise associated to WordPress, particularly when their entry can go away rapidly.
Open supply content material administration system Ghost’s founder John O’Nolan additionally weighed in on the problem and criticized management of WordPress being with one individual.
“The web needs more independent organizations, and it needs more diversity. 40% of the web and 80% of the CMS market should not be controlled by any one individual,” he mentioned in an X submit.
On October 9, net app improvement framework Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson opined that Automattic is violating principals of open supply software program by asking WP Engine to pay 8% of its revenues.
“Automattic is completely out of line, and the potential damage to the open source world extends far beyond the WordPress. Don’t let the drama or its characters distract you from that threat,” he mentioned in a weblog submit.
On the identical day, Mullenweg added a brand new checkbox to the WordPress.org contributor login, asking individuals to confirm that they aren’t related to WP Engine in any method. This transfer was criticized by the contributor neighborhood. Some contributors mentioned that they have been banned from the neighborhood Slack for opposing the transfer.
In response, WP Engine mentioned that its clients, companies, customers, and the neighborhood as a complete should not the corporate’s associates.
On October 12, WordPress.org took management of ACF (Superior Customized Fields) plug-in — which makes it simpler for WordPress builders so as to add personalized fields on the edit display screen — which was maintained by WP Engine. As WP Engine misplaced management of the open supply plug-in repository, the Silver Lake-backed firm wasn’t in a position to replace the plug-in. WordPress.org and Mullenweg mentioned that plug-in pointers permit the group to take this step.
On October 28, WordPress allegedly requested organizers of WordCamp Sydney, a neighborhood occasion, to take away posts speaking about WP Engine. Plus, Automattic additionally requested organizers internationally to share social media account credentials for “safe storage of future events,” in line with leaked letters posted on X.
On November 7, Automattic created a brand new web page referred to as WP Engine Tracker to point out what number of web sites have switched from WP Engine to a different internet hosting supplier.
WP Engine lawsuit
On October 3, WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg over abuse of energy in a court docket in California. The internet hosting firm additionally alleged that Automattic and Mullenweg didn’t hold their guarantees to run WordPress open supply tasks with none constraints and giving builders the liberty to construct, run, modify, and redistribute the software program.
“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust. WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement to TechCrunch.
The lawsuit additionally notes alleged texts from Mullenweg about probably hiring WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner. In a touch upon Hacker Information, Mullenweg mentioned that Brunner wished to be an government director of WordPress.org.
In response, Automattic referred to as this case meritless.
“I stayed up last night reading WP Engine’s Complaint, trying to find any merit anywhere to it. The whole thing is meritless, and we look forward to the federal court’s consideration of their lawsuit,” the corporate’s authorized consultant, Neal Katyal, mentioned in a weblog submit.
On October 18, WP Engine filed an injunction in a California court docket, asking the choose to revive its entry to WordPress.org. A day later, the corporate filed an administrative movement requesting the court docket to shorten the time to listen to its earlier preliminary injunction.
Mullenweg and workforce opposed expedited listening to in a court docket doc filed on October 21. They argued that the case isn’t about WP Engine’s entry to WordPress, as the corporate already has entry to “https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress” they usually can select to make use of it in any method.
“Rather than being about access to WordPress software, this case instead is about WordPress.org – a website owned and run by Defendant Matt Mullenweg individually, for the benefit of the community he loves,” the submitting reads.
“WordPress.org is not WordPress. WordPress.org is not Automattic or the WordPress Foundation, and is not controlled by either. To the contrary, as Plaintiff itself acknowledges, WordPress.org is Mr. Mullenweg’s responsibility.”
On October 23, Decide Araceli Martinez-Olguin mentioned the primary listening to for main injunction will happen on November 26 except there’s an opposition.
On October 30, Mullenweg and Automattic filed a movement to dismiss key accusations made by WP Engine on the idea that the corporate is accountable for harming itself.
“Despite its own (mis)conduct, WP Engine’s Complaint now asks this Court to compel Matt to provide various resources and support to private equity-backed WP Engine for free, in the absence of any contract, agreement, or promise to do so,” the court docket doc learn.
In reply, WP Engine filed a doc citing Mullenweg’s feedback on the TC Disrupt stage about how a lot enterprise WP Engine misplaced.
Automattic exodus
On October 3, 159 Automattic workers who didn’t agree with Mullenweg’s course of the corporate and WordPress total took a severance package deal and left the corporate. Virtually 80% of people that left labored in Automattic’s Ecosystem / WordPress division.
On October 8, WordPress mentioned that Mary Hubbard, who was TikTok U.S.’s head of governance and expertise, will likely be beginning as government director. This submit was beforehand held by Josepha Haden Chomphosy, who was one of many 159 individuals leaving Automattic. A day previous to this, one of many engineers from WP Engine introduced that he was becoming a member of Automattic.
On October 12, Mullenweg wrote in a submit that each working Automattic worker would get 200 A12 shares as a token of gratitude. These shares are a particular class for Automattic workers that they will promote after one yr and don’t have an expiry date.
On October 17, Mullenweg posted one other alignment provide on Automattic Slack — with only a four-hour response window — with a nine-month severance. Nevertheless, if any individual took the provide, they’d additionally lose entry to the WordPress.org neighborhood, Mullenweg mentioned.
You may contact this reporter at im@ivanmehta.com or on Sign: @ivan.42
