Oct 10, 2024, 4:35 AMSo catching up on the WordPress drama
Correct me if I’m wrong, but he’s mad that WP Engine is using WordPress, which is open source, and “not contributing enough back”, which of course would be nice but isn’t a requirement.
And he’s mad that they use “WP” in their name, and wants them to pay Automattic a “license fee” for it, but that’s not even a trademark Automattic owns?
it seems like Matt has lost his mind? I think there must be more to this.
Oct 10, 2024, 4:37 AM@pixel rumor is debt calls are squeezing Matt so he’s looking to juice revenue.
Oct 10, 2024, 4:54 AM@igb This adds up
@pixel Nope, that’s pretty much it.
If Matt wanted to “force” other people who work on his project, it shouldn’t have been open source and it also wouldn’t have grown to be as big as it is. He is trying to have his cake and eat it too.
Every decision you make is a trade-off. Some for-profit company can come and do whatever without contributing based on licensing. Don’t want them to do that? Decide that before making something open -source.
What he *is* proving is that any non-profit project without independent governance with a for-profit arm should be considered immediately suspect for whatever long term statements are made… *cough* OpenAI *cough*.
@jeffkibuule @pixel He is acting pretty unpredictably but it’s not as simple as him not wanting them to use the code. He grants them that. He’s fighting over the use of the trademarks.
@danielpunkass @pixel I believe the trademark is “WordPress”, not “WP”, correct me if I’m wrong.
Also, thing about trademarks, you have to defend them from the moment you get them. No changing your mind about it many years later, that’s how you get a Kleenex situation and why Adobe is so zealous about use of the word “Photoshop” as a verb.
@jeffkibuule @pixel Of course, there's tons of nuance around the question of whether his trademark complaints are valid. But he isn't denying WP Engine any rights to the source code.
@danielpunkass @jeffkibuule @pixel But he’s openly said that it’s not really about the trademark, that the trademark dispute is just a way to get them to pay. Which makes sense because if the issue were actually confusion, that wouldn’t be solved by money changing hands.