Matt Mullenweg and WordPress controversy | Announced

The story so far: Since September 21, there has been a falling out between Matt Mullenweg, the technologist at the center of the project. WordPress communityand a company called WP Engine quickly turned into a crisis for thousands of WordPress users around the world. WordPress is said to power over 40% (several million) of all websites on the internet; Therefore, policies that affect users’ ability to access key features of the software can have a far-reaching impact. The dispute ostensibly concerns trademark infringement, but it also concerns the principles of open source software development, trademark enforcement, and role clarity.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the name of a piece of software that people can use to create a website, blog or e-commerce portal on the internet. Its competitors are Ghost, Drupal and Wix. WordPress is a frequently cited example of open source software, created by volunteer developers who contribute/or improve its code, test the software on new platforms and fix bugs, and create themes and plugins that extend WordPress’ functionality beyond its standards. examines the key features and regularly conducts camps, workshops, and conferences to expand its adoption for various businesses and use cases. It is available under GPL license.

WordPress can be used in two ways. Self-hosted version refers to copies of WordPress that users can download for free from the WordPress.org website to use for their own server-hosted websites. This is the open source version. Hosted version refers to platforms or services where a third party manages your website’s WordPress installation and infrastructure for a fee. WP Engine is one such provider.

Matt Mullenweg is the founder and CEO of Automattic, a non-profit company that manufactures and distributes many digital products. One of these is WordPress.com, a hosted WordPress offering.

Automattic also makes significant contributions to the development of open source WordPress (3,988 hours/week). It is not directly affiliated with WordPress.org or the WordPress Foundation. However, Mullenweg is the personal owner of WordPress.org.

In addition to WordPress.com, Automattic also owns WordPress VIP (targeted at developers running large, high-traffic websites) and Pressable, all of which offer the same services to different segments of the market.

How did the dispute begin?

On September 21, Mullenweg published a post on WordPress.org accusing WP Engine of being a “cancer” for the WordPress community. His anger was directed at a core feature of WordPress: the ability to save any revisions a user makes to content created in WordPress. WP Engine has disabled this functionality, stating that each change is added to the site’s database, which becomes sluggish over time and slows down the website. Instead, WP Engine asked its users to contact support staff if they need to enable revision control on a per-website basis. Mullenweg claimed that WP Engine is not WordPress.

He also claimed that WP Engine was profiting from free access to WordPress without contributing to its development. WP Engine helps its users set up new WordPress websites by automatically connecting to WordPress.org, downloading and installing a copy of WordPress. It also offers tools that regularly check for WordPress updates and update its users’ websites. WordPress.org recommends these updates to keep websites secure. WordPress websites can also access the plugins directory hosted on WordPress.org. Plugins are ‘smaller’ pieces of software created by the WordPress community; Users are free to install plugins to extend the functionality of their sites in certain ways.

After Mullenweg’s post was published, WP Engine’s lawyers filed a cease and desist order (C&D) Letter to Automattic On September 23, we ask Mullenweg to stop belittling WP Engine. Later that day, Automattic’s lawyers responded: C&D letter to WP Engine claimed that the latter violated the former’s trademark policy.

What is a trademark issue?

According to Automattic’s C&D letter, WP Engine’s use of the “WP” tag in its name caused confusion for consumers to equate WP Engine with WordPress itself; This was a continuation of what Mullenweg mentioned in her September 21st post. This part of the dispute centers on whether Automattic owns a trademark on the “WP” tag.

WP Engine responded in its C&D letter by quoting a line from the WordPress Foundation website. On the “Trademark Policy” page. The line read: “The abbreviation ‘WP’ is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it as you see fit.” But at some point after September 21, the line on the website was changed to read: “The abbreviation ‘WP’ is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please do not use it in a way that confuses people.” Based on the previous statement, WP Engine said it complied with trademark law.

WP Engine also noted in its letter that it has used the “WP” tag for “more than a decade.” Trademark law in the United States requires trademark owners to monitor and take action to enforce potentially infringing uses. Otherwise, they face losing the trademark. WP Engine’s argument in this context is that it has been able to use the “WP” tag for many years without seeking punitive action from Automattic.

How did the dispute develop?

WP Engine’s C&D letter dated September 23 contained an important claim. On September 20, Mullenweg gave the keynote speech at WordCamp US, an annual WordPress-focused conference. According to WP Engine’s C&D letter, Mullenweg texted WP Engine’s CEO up to a minute before giving his speech, asking that the company transfer a percentage of its revenue to Automattic as a way to contribute to the development of WordPress. The C&D letter stated that there were screenshots of Mullwenweg’s messages. These messages said that if WP Engine did not agree to the sender’s demands, the sender would take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” against WP Engine. The letter stated that the demands were “astronomical and extortion”.

Automattic’s C&D letter made no mention of any of these issues, focusing instead on the claim that WP Engine infringes on the WordPress trademark.

In response to a user’s post on Reddit on September 24, Mullenweg wrote: “(WP Engine) had the option to license the WordPress trademark for 8% of their revenue, which could be offered as payments, contacts (Five for the Future .org commitments), or any combination of the above.” Five for the Future It is a program developed on WordPress.org that can help organizations that benefit from WordPress by devoting some of their resources to the development of WordPress.

Mullenweg the next day WP Engine banned It gives you direct access to updates and plugins hosted on WordPress.org.

What were the consequences of the ban?

The unprecedented ban has prevented many lakhs of WordPress websites from accessing the resources they need for normal operation. Mullenweg wrote in his post that if WP Engine “wants to control your WordPress experience” by disabling revision controls, it can also develop and run a variety of other resources that the WordPress ecosystem uses for free; This includes updates, bug tracker. and a user authentication system.

Public sentiment, especially within the community of WordPress users, was already negative towards Mullenweg after her post on September 21; The September 25 ban increased this even more. On popular public forums known to congregate industry observers and insiders, including Reddit and Hacker News, users focused as much on the ramifications of the ban (the magnitude of which they did not dispute) as on Mullenweg’s motivations.

One of the points of contention was private equity. Mullenweg wrote on Sept. 21 that WP Engine decided not to pay for larger databases to cover revision controls in order to reduce costs and increase margins for private equity owners. Since 2018, a private equity firm called Silver Lake has controlled WP Engine, and both mullenweg And Automatic He singled out the company by name in his posts on September 25 and 26, respectively.

Another popular topic of discussion was confusion regarding Mullenweg’s role in the WordPress ecosystem. According to the “Trademark Policy” page on the WordPress Foundation website, the “WP” tag is licensed for commercial use to two companies: Automattic and Newfold (another company that provides WordPress hosting services like WP Engine). Mullenweg interpreted this to mean that all other companies that use the “WP” tag in a confusing or misleading way are beholden to the WordPress Foundation.

If WP Engine is liable to pay a trademark license fee, this will be payable to the Foundation; whereas the C&D letter alleging trademark misuse was issued by Automattic, an unaffiliated entity. Many developers interpreted Mullenweg’s decision to ban WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org as amounting to an overturning of the equal opportunity structure of the WordPress open source community in favor of a bid by Automattic’s CEO to resolve a dispute focused largely on himself. there are some already called Mullenweg is stepping down as WordPress development lead.

They also claimed that Mullenweg had a conflict of interest because WP Engine competes directly with Automattic’s WordPress.com, WordPress VIP and Pressable hosting products.

On the other hand, another section of developers and users said that WP Engine made a mistake by not contributing to the WordPress community despite its high revenue and profited from public confusion about WP Engine being affiliated with WordPress.

What’s next?

The GPL license under which WordPress is available does not obligate WP Engine to contribute to the development of WordPress. Also Mullenweg protected WP Engine does not have access to WordPress.org and that this access is guaranteed for services that benefit the WordPress community. “This isn’t a money grab: it’s an expectation that any business that makes hundreds of millions of dollars from an open source project must give it back, and if they don’t they won’t be able to use their trademarks,” he said. said threshold.

On September 27, Mullenweg posted: another post The WordPress.org website stated that it was restoring WP Engine’s access to resources on WordPress.org by 12:00 UTC on October 1st. WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner blames Silver Lake general manager Lee Wittinger and the WP Engine board for “putting their customers at risk, not me.”

C&D letters alone do not constitute a legal dispute at this point; This will happen if lawyers for both parties take the matter to court. Meanwhile, WordPress Foundation applied On July 12, we reached an agreement with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the terms “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” In the current context, this fact has created further uncertainty among independent hosting providers who are worried about drawing the ire of Automattic.

Like TechCrunch reported“The WordPress community and other projects think this could happen to them and are asking for clarification from Automattic, which has an exclusive license for the WordPress trademark. The community also wants clear guidance on how they can and cannot use ‘WordPress.'”