The ongoing conflict between WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and hosting provider WP Engine has reached new heights. On Wednesday, Mullenweg took the unprecedented step of blocking WP Engine's servers from accessing WordPress.org resources, potentially putting millions of websites at risk.
The dispute, which has been brewing for some time, centers around Mullenweg's accusations that WP Engine is profiting from WordPress without adequately contributing to its development. The situation has rapidly escalated over the past week, with a series of public statements and legal maneuvers from both sides.
Summary of Events:
- September 21, 2024: Mullenweg publishes a post on WordPress.org titled "WP Engine is not WordPress," accusing the hosting company of disabling core WordPress features, such as post revisions, to save on storage costs.
- September 24, 2024: The WordPress Foundation, led by Mullenweg, files trademarks for "managed WordPress" and "hosted WordPress," signaling a potential shift in how the open-source project may control the use of its name.
Image credit-@DuaneStorey - September 25, 2024: Mullenweg announces the ban of WP Engine from WordPress.org resources.
The core of the dispute appears to be financial.
According to shared document, Automattic had previously demanded that WP Engine pay "a significant percentage of its gross revenues" - reportedly 8% - for a license to use certain WordPress-related trademarks. WP Engine refused, arguing that their use of these terms falls under fair use in trademark law.
The ban's impact is significant. WP Engine customers are now unable to update or install plugins and themes via the WordPress admin interface, potentially leaving their sites vulnerable to security risks if they cannot access critical updates.
Mullenweg in the latest blogpost, titled, "WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org", advised WP Engine customers to contact the company's support for assistance with any issues with their site.
"Any WP Engine customers having trouble with their sites should contact WP Engine support and ask them to fix it."
The WordPress community's reaction has been largely negative. Many users and developers have expressed concern over the potential consequences of this action, not just for WP Engine customers but for the WordPress ecosystem as a whole.
On Reddit, a users claiming to be a WordPress core developer, shared his/her perspective-
"All contributors, Automattic and non-Automattic, are watching very closely. We're also thinking very carefully about our contributions." They emphasized that the core development team had no prior notice of Mullenweg's actions and that there's "an almost deafening public silence in contributor-to-contributor communication" as they process recent events.
Full post on Reddit-
Comment
byu/JeffTS from discussion
inWordpress
This situation raises several critical questions about the future of WordPress.
As the situation continues to unfold, many in the WordPress community are calling for a resolution that doesn't compromise the open-source principles upon which WordPress was built.
As this story develops, it serves as a stark reminder of the complex relationships between open-source projects, commercial entities, and the communities they serve.
Somehow similar situation was also with Redis, the popular open-source in-memory data store, which shift in dual licensing model.
Under the new model, the Redis source code will remain freely available to developers, customers, and partners through the "Redis Community Edition." However, companies looking to provide competitive offerings by embedding or hosting Redis as a service will need to obtain a commercial license from Redis Inc.
The goal of the licensing shift is to allow Redis Inc. to sustainably invest in developing new capabilities for the Redis data platform, while still enabling permissive open source use by individual developers, students, startups, and other non-commercial users.
The resolution of the WordPress case, conflict could shape the future of WordPress and potentially influence the broader open-source software landscape for years to come.