Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic announced on Reddit that WP Engine initiated legal action against WordPress, Automattic, and Mullenweg himself. Mullenweg wrote that WordPress is countersuing.
WP Engine is a leading managed WordPress host provider that Mullenweg alleges is violating the WordPress trademark.
For those out of the loop:
There’s WordPress (the non-profit and open-source software), and Automattic (which runs for-profit companies like a paid WordPress, Tumblr, Gravitar, etc).
Automattic (Matt’s company) pays their devs to support the open-source software.
Lots of companies sell WordPress hosting.
Matt is calling out WP Engine for not just using WordPress without a lot of contribution back to the open-source software, but also selling a chopped up experience.
The metaphor would be: imagine if a company selling tablets contained VLC, bragged about all the movies you can watch, gives back very little to VLC, and you can’t use the playlist feature.
Also, not trying to shit on WP Engine. This is the post everyone should get to see.
https://www.briancoords.com/the-wcus-closing-i-wish-wed-had/
Okay, so, FOSS.
If WordPress doesn’t want WP Engine doing what it’s doing, they need to change their license. It’s not “Free Open Source Software Until Something We Don’t Like Happens.”
The software is free, but it looks like the trademark is not. So WordPress bans WP engine from some WordPress stuff b/c they aren’t technically WordPress. In other words, they’re free to use (and change) the software, but they can’t (or, rather, shouldn’t) use the name—according to WordPress. WP sues for usage anyway after they are barred from some event or something, but now WordPress is suing back, turning an unofficial dispute to a legal one.
Similarly to Nextcloud. If you host an instance and remove preinstalled apps, you are obliged to also remove the Nextcloud branding.
Apparently, it isn’t about FOSS. It’s about trademark infringement.