Over the past few weeks, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has made one thing clear: he is in charge of the future of WordPress.
Mullenweg leads WordPress.com and its parent company Automattic. He owns the WordPress.org project and even leads the non-profit foundation that controls the WordPress trademark. To outside observers, these may appear to be independent organizations, all designed solely around the WordPress open source project. But when Mullenweg takes on WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, he blurs the lines between three fundamental entities that lead a massive ecosystem that powers nearly half of the web.
That’s all fine and good for Mullenweg – as long as it supports the long-term health of WordPress.
“WordPress.org belongs to me alone,” Mullenweg said in an interview edge. WordPress.org exists outside of Automattic’s commercial domain as an independent publishing platform that provides free access to its open source code that people can use to build their own websites. But it is not a neutral, independent arbiter of the ecosystem. “As the owner of WordPress.org, I don’t want to promote a company that A: threatens me legally and B: uses the WordPress trademark. That’s part of the reason we cut off access to our servers.
“It’s true: we’re putting pressure on them”
Mullenweg’s feud with WP Engine unfolds in several different directions. He criticized WP Engine for not investing enough time and money into developing the open source WordPress ecosystem, saying that if you donated $1 to the WordPress Foundation, “you would become a bigger donor than WP Engine.” Mullenweg proposed WP Engine There is the possibility of hacking Automatic’s WooCommerce plug-in in order to collect commissions from Automatic, but WP Engine has denied this. Judging from these debates, it seems that the debate is about what is and is not appropriate in the world of open source software.
But Mullenweg has since sidestepped those arguments, arguing that WP Engine and what he describes as a “cracked, bastardized simulacra” of the WordPress open source code infringes on Automattic’s trademark: WordPress.
“The analogy I use is they asked Al Capone to collect taxes,” Mullenweg said. “So if a company is making $500 million through WordPress and giving back about $100,000 a year, yes, I would try to get them to contribute more.” WP Engine competes directly with hosting services offered by Automattic and WordPress.com , Mullenweg believes that one of the reasons for its success is the use of “WordPress” on its website. “That’s why we’re using legal avenues to really put pressure on them. That’s true: we’re putting pressure on them.
Mullenweg began his public pressure campaign at last month’s WordPress conference, telling people to “vote with your wallet” and stop supporting WP Engine. He later called the service a “cancer” of the WordPress ecosystem. Mullenweg ultimately blocked WP Engine from WordPress.org’s servers, preventing WP Engine customers from installing themes, plug-ins, and updates.
The decision to shut down WP Engine also puts other WordPress projects in a precarious position. WordPress is open source and free to use, with no obligation to give back. But Mullenweg made it clear that successful projects must meet certain criteria to stay off Automattic’s radar.
“I’m happy to provide WordPress.org services to almost every other host,” Mullenweg said. “There is no requirement to give back. WordPress will always be open source, so there will never be any legal requirement to give back. But WordPress still “requires” companies to contribute something. “It would be better for WordPress if they gave something back.”
For WP Engine, it boils down to this: Mullenweg wants the company to contribute to WordPress, whether that’s paying to license the WordPress trademark or investing in an open-source WordPress project.
Although the WordPress Foundation controls the platform’s trademark, commercial rights to the trademark are licensed to Automattic. This means that Automattic can charge other companies to use the WordPress trademark for commercial purposes, and this is where Mullenweg can put pressure on WP Engine.
“What they’re doing is not right. It’s not that they call it WP; it’s that they call it WP. The problem is that they’re using the WordPress trademark in a confusing way.” He quoted WP Engine after the dispute began Among the “crazy changes” made to its website was the removal of mentions of “WordPress.” According to the WordPress Foundation’s trademark policy, companies can use the WordPress name and logo to “reference and explain their services.”
The foundation said the “WP” abbreviation is not protected by its trademark, but recently revised its guidelines to say companies should stop using the abbreviation in “confusing ways.” period edgeIn an interview, Mullenweg confirmed that he had changed the foundation’s trademark policy to include “mining WP Engine.” The policy now says that WP Engine “has never even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of dollars in revenue on WordPress.”
This week, Automattic unveiled a proposed resolution to the dispute: a seven-year agreement that would require WP Engine to pay an 8% fee on all revenue from using WordPress and Automattic’s WooCommerce trademark, or compensate those who contribute to WordPress. Employee open source projects. The deal was proposed in late September, but Mullenweg said it had been ruled out due to “WP Engine’s conduct, deception and incompetence.”
The dispute eventually led to a lawsuit, with WP Engine accusing Automattic and Mullenweg of racketeering. WP Engine claimed that after the two failed to reach an agreement, Mallenweg said he would continue with a “scorched earth approach”. “When WPE refused to give in to Automattic’s astronomical and extortionate monetary demands, Mullenweg made good on his threat,” WP Engine claims. “The threat of ‘war’ turned into a multi-front attack as part of an overall plan to extract rewards from WPE.”
In the lawsuit, WP Engine claimed that Mullenweg was trying to “take advantage of the chaos he caused” by advertising a switch to Pressable, another WordPress host owned by Automattic. The document also includes a job offer Mullenweg allegedly made to WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner, saying that if she declined to join Automattic, he would tell the CEO of Silver Lake, the private equity firm that owns WP Engine.
WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy and more than 150 other employees left Automattic, accepting Mullenweg’s offer to pay him $30,000 or six months’ salary (whichever was greater) if they didn’t support him in his fight against WP Engine. .
What’s more, WP Engine’s lawsuit raises concerns about corporate overreach, alleging that Mullenweg’s actions reflect “a clear abuse of his conflicting roles” within the WordPress Foundation, Automattic, and the open source WordPress project. Automattic called the lawsuit “baseless” in a statement Thursday, adding that it denied WP Engine’s allegations “which are a gross misrepresentation of reality.”
Whatever the outcome of the legal proceedings, it is clear that Mullenweg Do Take control of WordPress.org. But his battle with WP Engine has only blurred the lines between WordPress and Automattic, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the open source community that has long supported him. As long as WordPress stands out, Automattic seems willing to take the risk.
