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I wonder what the fallout of this will be. If this results in a successful fork of wordpress with a registry independent from Wordpress.org that would be quite

I wonder what the fallout of this will be. If this results in a successful fork of wordpress with a registry independent from Wordpress.org that would be quite ironic.

createaccount99 2y ago
The issue started from WP Engine not contributing back to WordPress, I don't see how they'd ever put up the resources to fork anything.
- Ukv 2y ago
  To my understanding WP Engine already sponsor a dozen developers on the WordPress project, maintain their own open source projects, and host events. Matt's demand was allegedly specifically for "tens of millions to his for-profit company Automattic" (i.e. WordPress.com, a for-profit competitor of WP Engine, not WordPress.org) for a trademark license.
  - graemep 2y ago
    I thought the trademarks were owned by the Wordpress Foundation?
    - Ukv 2y ago
      They are, and the foundation's policy[0] already explicitly states: > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it in any way you see fit. Matt's whole "WP Engine needs a trademark license, they don’t have one", to try to extract money from WP Engine, is legally toothless as far as I can tell. According to WP Engine: > Automattic CFO Mark Davies told a WP Engine board member that Automattic would “go to war” if WP Engine did not agree to pay its competitor Automattic a significant percentage of its gross revenues – tens of millions of dollars in fact – on an ongoing basis. Mr. Davies suggested the payment ostensibly would be for a “license” to use certain trademarks like WordPress, even though WP Engine needs no such license. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240901224354/https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240901224354/https://wordpress...
- snatchpiesinger 2y ago
  There are two paths: 1. Fork and cherry-pick from upstream, don't accept contributions from outside. They need minimal changes. 2. Fork and maintain their fork independently, try to get community contributors too.
TiredOfLife 2y ago
If WP Engine is not capable to contribute to WP development, how do you imagine they will ne able to support a fork?

I wonder what the fallout of this will be. If this results in a successful fork of wordpress with a registry independent from Wordpress.org that would be quite ironic.

createaccount99 2y ago

The issue started from WP Engine not contributing back to WordPress, I don't see how they'd ever put up the resources to fork anything.

Ukv 2y ago
To my understanding WP Engine already sponsor a dozen developers on the WordPress project, maintain their own open source projects, and host events. Matt's demand was allegedly specifically for "tens of millions to his for-profit company Automattic" (i.e. WordPress.com, a for-profit competitor of WP Engine, not WordPress.org) for a trademark license.
- graemep 2y ago
  I thought the trademarks were owned by the Wordpress Foundation?
  - Ukv 2y ago
    They are, and the foundation's policy[0] already explicitly states: > The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it in any way you see fit. Matt's whole "WP Engine needs a trademark license, they don’t have one", to try to extract money from WP Engine, is legally toothless as far as I can tell. According to WP Engine: > Automattic CFO Mark Davies told a WP Engine board member that Automattic would “go to war” if WP Engine did not agree to pay its competitor Automattic a significant percentage of its gross revenues – tens of millions of dollars in fact – on an ongoing basis. Mr. Davies suggested the payment ostensibly would be for a “license” to use certain trademarks like WordPress, even though WP Engine needs no such license. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240901224354/https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240901224354/https://wordpress...
snatchpiesinger 2y ago
There are two paths: 1. Fork and cherry-pick from upstream, don't accept contributions from outside. They need minimal changes. 2. Fork and maintain their fork independently, try to get community contributors too.

TiredOfLife 2y ago

If WP Engine is not capable to contribute to WP development, how do you imagine they will ne able to support a fork?