Matt Mullenweg: ‘WordPress.org just belongs to me’

Over the past respective weeks, WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg has made 1 happening exceedingly clear: he’s successful complaint of WordPress’ future.

Mullenweg heads up WordPress.com and its genitor company, Automattic. He owns the WordPress.org project, and helium adjacent leads the nonprofit instauration that controls the WordPress trademark. To the extracurricular observer, these mightiness look to beryllium autarkic organizations, each separately designed astir the WordPress open-source project. But arsenic helium wages a conflict against WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, Mullenweg has muddied the boundaries betwixt 3 indispensable entities that pb a sprawling ecosystem powering astir fractional of the web.

To Mullenweg, that’s each good — as agelong arsenic it supports the wellness of WordPress long-term.

“WordPress.org conscionable belongs to maine personally,” Mullenweg said during an interrogation with The Verge. WordPress.org exists extracurricular the commercialized realm of Automattic, arsenic a standalone publishing level that offers escaped entree to its open-source codification that radical tin usage to make their ain websites. But it’s not a neutral, autarkic arbiter of the ecosystem. “In my relation arsenic owning WordPress.org, I don’t privation to beforehand a company, which is A: legally threatening maine and B: utilizing the WordPress trademark. That’s portion of wherefore we chopped disconnected entree from the servers.”

Mullenweg’s feud with WP Engine fans retired successful a fewer antithetic directions. He’s criticized WP Engine for not putting capable clip and wealth into processing the open-source WordPress ecosystem, saying that if you gave $1 to the WordPress Foundation, “you’d beryllium a bigger donor than WP Engine.” And Mullenweg has brought up the possibility that WP Engine “hacked” the Automatic-owned WooCommerce plug-in to cod commissions meant for Automattic, which WP Engine has denied. From those arguments, the combat appears to beryllium 1 implicit what is and isn’t due successful the open-source bundle world.

But Mullenweg has since sidelined those arguments to marque the lawsuit that WP Engine — and its “hacked up, bastardized simulacra” of the WordPress open-source code, arsenic helium describes it — is infringing connected Automattic’s trademark: WordPress.

“The analogy I made is they got Al Capone for taxes,” Mullenweg says. “So, if a institution was making fractional a cardinal dollars from WordPress and contributing backmost astir $100,000 a year, yes, I would beryllium trying to get them to lend more.” WP Engine competes straight with the hosting services offered by Automattic and WordPress.com, and Mullenweg argues 1 of the reasons for its occurrence is the usage of “WordPress” crossed its site. “That’s wherefore we’re utilizing that ineligible avenue to really, yeah, unit them. That’s true: we are pressuring them.”

Mullenweg began his nationalist unit run during a WordPress league past month, telling radical to “vote with your wallet” and halt supporting WP Engine. He later called the service a “cancer” to the WordPress ecosystem. Mullenweg yet blocked WP Engine from WordPress.org’s servers, leaving WP Engine’s customers incapable to instal themes, plug-ins, and updates.

The determination to chopped disconnected WP Engine besides enactment different WordPress projects successful a precarious position. WordPress is open-source and escaped to use, with nary mandate to springiness back. But Mullenweg has made it wide that determination is immoderate barroom that palmy projects indispensable conscionable to enactment disconnected Automattic’s radar.

“I happily supply WordPress.org services to virtually each different host,” Mullenweg says. There is “no request to springiness back. WordPress volition beryllium open-source everlastingly and ever, and truthful determination volition ne'er beryllium immoderate ineligible request to springiness back.” But WordPress does inactive “request” that companies lend something. “It’s amended for WordPress if they springiness back.”

For WP Engine, what it comes down to is this: Mullenweg wants the institution to lend to WordPress, whether it’s by paying to licence the WordPress trademark oregon by pitching into the open-source WordPress project.

Even though the WordPress Foundation controls the platform’s trademark, the commercialized rights for that trademark are licensed to Automattic. That means Automattic tin complaint different companies for utilizing the WordPress trademark for commercialized purposes — and that’s wherever Mullenweg has been capable to exert unit connected WP Engine.

“What they’re doing is not okay. It’s not that they’re calling it WP; it’s that they’re utilizing the WordPress trademark successful confusing ways,” Mullenweg said. He cited the “frantic changes” helium claims WP Engine made to its tract to region mentions of “WordPress” aft the quality began. Under the WordPress Foundation’s trademark policies, companies tin usage the WordPress sanction and logo to “refer to and explicate their services.”

The instauration says the “WP” abbreviation isn’t covered by its trademarks, but the guidelines were precocious tweaked to accidental that companies should halt utilizing the abbreviation successful “a mode that confuses people.” During The Verge’s interview, Mullenweg confirmed helium changed the foundation’s trademark policies to see a “dig astatine WP Engine.” The argumentation present says WP Engine “never erstwhile adjacent donated to the WordPress Foundation, contempt making billions of gross connected apical of WordPress.”

This week, Automattic published its projected solution to the dispute: a seven-year deal that would necessitate WP Engine to wage an 8 percent interest connected each gross to either usage the WordPress and Automattic’s WooCommerce trademarks oregon to compensate employees who would lend to the WordPress open-source project. The woody was offered successful precocious September, but Mullenweg says it’s disconnected the table owed to “WP Engine’s behavior, deception, and incompetence.”

The quality culminated successful a lawsuit, successful which WP Engine accuses Automattic and Mullenweg of extortion. WP Engine alleges that Mullenweg said helium would proceed with a “scorched world atomic approach” aft the 2 failed to travel to an agreement. “When WPE refused to capitulate to Automattic’s astronomical and extortionate monetary demands, Mullenweg made bully connected his threats,” WP Engine claims. “The menace of ‘war’ turned into a multi-front attack, portion of an overarching strategy to extract payouts from WPE.”

In the lawsuit, WP Engine claims Mullenweg is attempting to “capitalize connected the chaos helium caused” by advertising a deal to power to Pressable — different WordPress big owned by Automattic. The filing besides includes a purported occupation connection from Mullenweg to WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner saying that if she declines to articulation Automattic, he’d archer the CEO of Silver Lake — the backstage equity steadfast that owns WP Engine.

WordPress enforcement manager Josepha Haden Chomphosy has since near Automattic, on with more than 150 different employees who accepted Mullenweg’s connection to permission for $30,000 oregon six months of pay, whichever is higher, if they didn’t enactment his combat against WP Engine.

More importantly, WP Engine’s suit raises concerns astir firm overreach, alleging Mullenweg’s actions bespeak “a wide maltreatment of his conflicting roles” astatine the WordPress Foundation, Automattic, and the open-source WordPress project. In a connection connected Thursday, Automattic called the suit “baseless,” adding that it denies WP Engine’s allegations, “which are gross mischaracterizations of reality.”

However the ineligible lawsuit whitethorn cookware out, it’s go wide that Mullenweg does power WordPress.org. But his combat with WP Engine has lone made the borderline betwixt WordPress and Automattic murkier, casting a shadiness of uncertainty implicit the unfastened root assemblage that’s agelong backed him. That seems to beryllium a hazard Automattic is consenting to instrumentality arsenic agelong arsenic WordPress comes retired connected top.