> the problem ... with people like this is that it never stops.
By contrast, this doesn't make WPE look good:
WP Engine had been siphoning “tens of millions” of dollars away from Woo’s revenue share partnership with Stripe into its own coffers. It’s understood WP Engine has been swapping out WooCommerce’s Stripe Connect Account information for its own when a user installs WooCommerce.
That's the sort of thing that, if a proven problem, could seem less like a shakedown and more like active wire fraud.
EDIT: As replies note, GPL. OK, but I realize I grew up thinking if someone gives me software it isn't to rip out their revenue model and replace it with mine, it is for me to do my own value added thing with it. Meaning, the stealth edit might not be wrong, but still seems uncool.
Isn't it just that WP Engine made their own Stripe plugin for Woo? Why is this being called out as wrong?
The players
- WordPress is open source, under GPLv2; a least since 2011;
- WordPress is managed by the WordPress Foundation since 2010 with Matthew Charles Mullenweg as director;
- Automattic is a private company that owns and runs WordPress.com, whose CEO and founder is Matthew Charles Mullenweg;
- WP Engine is a separated company that uses Wordpress that makes money by hosting WordPress since 2010;
- WP Engine and Wordpress.com are direct competitors;
- WordCamp is a conference run by volunteers that happens regularly, this year it happened between 17-24 of September
--
What happened, afaik:
- Sept 23: Matt calls WP Engine "the cancer of WordPress" on his blog [1][2][3] and says that it profits from the open source without contributing enough
- Sept 24: WP Engine sends a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic to “retract false, harmful, and disparaging statements”, after Matt Mullenweg called it a “cancer” [4]
- Sept 25: Automattic sends a cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine, alleging unauthorized use of the WordPress trademark [5] and I quote "If you gave $1 to the WordPress Foundation, you’d be a bigger donor than WP Engine."
- Sept 26: WP Engine is banned from Wordpress.org [6] breaking plugin updates from WP Engine
- Same day: Matt on his personal blog says Automattic has "been attempting to make a licensing deal" with WP Engine "for a very long time, and all they have done is string us along" [7] and doubles down that this is about WP Engine's disrespecting WordPress trademarks
- Oct 1st: Automattic made public [8][9] a seven-year agreement proposed to WP Engine in exchange for 8% of their revenue, the document has the sign date of Sept 20 (during WordCamp?) that could be paid in royalties and/or employees to contribute to WordPress.org; the document also states no forking of WordPress allowed
- Oct 2nd (you are here): WP Engine sues Automattic AND Matt, Matt is here on this thread generating more evidence against himself in the comments [10]; the document has tweets, conversations, everything... And if it goes to a public trial more dirt will come up for sure;
--
Extra facts (not necessarily related)
- Automattic has invested on WP Engine in 2011 [11]
- Automattic acquired Tumblr in 2019 for 3MM USD [12], and in Aug this year announced it was moving it to WordPress [13]
- Drupal creator gives some insight on this feud and how Drupal deals with that [14]
[1] https://wordpress.org/news/2024/09/wp-engine/
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/22/matt-mullenweg-calls-wp-en...
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41619587
[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41631912
[5] https://automattic.com/2024/09/25/open-source-trademarks-wp-...
[6] https://wordpress.org/news/2024/09/wp-engine-banned/
[7] https://ma.tt/2024/09/wordpress-engine/
[8] https://automattic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/term-sheet...
[9] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41718485
[10] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41726656
[11] https://wpengine.com/blog/wp-engine-closes-1-2m-in-series-a-...
[12] Auttomatic + Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/photomatt/186964618222/automattic-tum...
[13] https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/28/24230587/tumblr-move-blog...
[14] https://dri.es/solving-the-maker-taker-problem
The Foundation doesn't actually manage anything though, does it? WordPress.org is managed and owned by Mullenweg personally.