Automattic accuses rival WordPress outfit WP Engine of ‘false advertising, and deceptive business practices’

The long battle between Automattic and WP Engine has flared again, this time with accusations the latter company issued “false advertising”, and employed “deceptive business practices.” This story starts in September 2024, when Matt Mullenwegg, co-creator of the open source CMS WordPress, attacked a company called WP Engine …

[demon driver]

Capitalist profiting from open source sues other capitalist for profiting from open source.

There is no right life in the wrong one.

[Irongut]

This arsehole again

I would never use crap like Wordpress but when Mullenweg went full thermonuclear twat last year I cancelled my subscription to Pocket Casts - a podcast app made by his company. That sub ran out last month and I have not renewed it.

Mullenweg should not recieve any support for his attempts to alter the deal that is open source. If you have any contracts with his company cancel them. It is the only language he will eventually understand.

[harrys]

Ego before business

They must think they are public sector workers :)

[Blackjack]

I am getting tired of both companies, any other alternatives out there?

[VoiceOfTruth]

All is not well in the land of open source

>> Mullenweg accused WP Engine of profiting from WordPress without making appropriate contributions to the open source community.

This seems to be a complaint which crops up more and more these days. Summary: somebody makes money from Bob's open source, and doesn't contribute* back, even though that is what the licence allows.

* contribute either 'enough' money, any money, or meaningful amounts of source code.

>> WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks

The sort of same thing happened with Redhat. If WP Engine is abusing or misusing the WordPress trademark, that is not something to be celebrated as it undoes the reasoning for securing a trademark in the first place. WP Engine is free to take the source code, fork it, and call it something other than WordPress.

But there is an issue here, outside the trademark complaint. WordPress is licensed under GPLv2. On the official WordPress web site it states as one of its "four freedoms": The freedom to run the program for any purpose. If "any" doesn't mean "any", then it doesn't actually mean any. If Mullenweg doesn't like the idea of WP Engine making money out of (arguably) his work and baby, then he should have chosen a different licence.

[DrewPH]

Popcorn time

Here we go again... it's quite amusing watching Mullenweg destroy any credibility or goodwill Automattic might have once had. Rich boys and their egos...

[A2Wx8]

Re: Popcorn time

It's kind of amazing how Mullenweg handled this all so badly that the private equity firm, a type of company that usually acts like they're made of distilled high-grade evil, comes out looking like the more measured, reasonable one.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Is it still true that you have to bolt on about a million plug ins to WordPress to get any serious functionality out of it?

[DrewPH]

No, and it never was.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I'm going back a few years now. I do remember reading comments to that effect.