I’ve been writing and talking about WP Engine a lot in the last week, but I want to be crystal clear about the core issue at play.
In short, WP Engine is violating WordPress’ trademarks. Moreover, they have been doing so for years. We at Automattic have been attempting to make a licensing deal with them for a very long time, and all they have done is string us along. Finally, I drew a line in the sand, which they have now leapt over.
We offered WP Engine the option of how to pay their fair share: either pay a direct licensing fee, or make in-kind contributions to the open source project. This isn’t a money grab: it’s an expectation that any business making hundreds of millions of dollars off of an open source project ought to give back, and if they don’t, then they can’t use its trademarks. WP Engine has refused to do either, and has instead taken to casting aspersions on my attempt to make a fair deal with them.
WordPress is licensed under the GPL; respect for copyright and IP like trademarks is core to the GPL and our conception of what open source means. If WP Engine wants to find another open source project with a more permissive license and no trademarks, they are free to do so; if they want to benefit from the WordPress community, then they need to respect WordPress trademark and IP.
Further reading:
right
That’s not how Open Source works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You can’t expect anything in return.
Some more evidence for you case:
Look at the bottom for breakout to find the highest rated and breakout related queries as wordpress engine:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=wp%20engine&hl=en
I hope things are working out soon; and everyone is getting fair outcome. This WE Engine vs WordPress has been trending for the past couple days. A lot of eyes are on this trending topic.
It’s a fair deal to WP Engine that they should contribute to the opensource projects.
Legend
Thanks, Matt. I’m listening to the chat on x.com that’s hosted by Tia Wood. Thanks for sharing and answering questions, you are on the right side, Matt.
https://x.com/i/spaces/1dRKZdVLgPQJB
Btw, did you know that WPEngine is advertising for the “WordPress Engine” keyword?
https://share.zight.com/6qu1YBA9
It took wordpress.org long enough. WP Engine has been riding on the coattails of the open-source platform.
That’s the point I got ♂️ the move by WordPress.org to ban WP Engine and block access to its resources seems like a direct response to WPengine exploitation.
To be sincere I also actually thought wp engine is affiliated to WordPress.org. Mxm I didn’t see any direct claim. But I think the situation placed on wp engine would be a serious implications for its customers. WordPress could have placed that in mind this dramatic shake-up may take an unexpected turn. I remain a bywatcher lol
This makes sense! Thanks Matt.
Only thing sad about this is they bought ACF and Delicious Brains work. Yet they were 100% WordPress products and benefitted us all greatly. I was sad to see them join ** Engine at the time, and now learning from you the last week, It’s worse. Hopefully with ** Engine can grow up, or at least these projects can continue to be what they were.
I just heard about the situation with Woo and Stripe. Leave it to private equity to find a way to leech off the work, maintenance, and development of a plugin by another company. The only mistake you’ve made here is that you didn’t expose WP Engine sooner.
It’s not just WP Engine either. Because while what they’re doing is damaging to the ecosystem, it’s also very profitable, and that will condition other companies to engage in the same destructive behaviors.
I’m grateful for all you’ve done, and all that you’re doing now. A lot of people might not understand that what you’re doing is for the greater good of WordPress, but in hindsight I think they’ll understand that it was necessary.
This topic has been a hot topic in the WordPress community. I hope that a good conclusion will be reached for the greater good of WordPress ecosystem.
Just asking a question on licensing side: If WordPress was licensed under the AGPL instead of GPL, will the WP Engine debacle be less disasterous or maybe even worse, cue the Hashicorp and Elastic SSPL/BUSL relicensing fiasco?
Fair enough.
Matt this is still not clear at all. WordPress is licensed under GPL. Are we okay to say we use WordPress and promote this? Presumably yes, therefore what specifically wp engine doing wrong?
I’ve no doubt that wp engine is, as you say, a leech. But there are plenty of others and this seems all pretty arbitrary
I wish the content of this post would have been the sole focus of any statements made about WP Engine. This very valid point was buried under too many other tangental arguments.
WPEngine gave free Developer accounts to influencers in the community. People who where active in the community and this helped them grow the business. Maybe you should consider a strategy like this and offer a better product. I don’t see the community talking about your hosting but they could be and you could offer a better product. Look at what WPEngine & Kinsta have done and do it better but work with active members of the community to promote your brand.
We did this. We did that. Show the receipts. Make those correspondence public.
I posted an open letter to you on my website, it’s under my Recent Posts, I didn’t link it for fear it would get blocked. I’ll be honest, I respectfully disagree with your blocking of WPE affiliated contributors and websites from dot org. Let this trademark violation play out in civil court.
I agree…