Matt Mullenweg vs. Everyone 2: Electric Boogaloo
(Note: Ugh, this thing is developing faster than my COVID-addled brain digest and write. Bear with me. There’s more coming immediately after I publish this one. Coverage on more recent events from last night, such as Matt blocking WP Engine customers accessing the WordPress.org repository, are coming shortly.)
(Note 2: I’m doing a hell of a lot more writing than I am editing. If you come across any typos or whatever, please feel free to submit a pull request on GitHub. It’s very appreciated.)
Alright, homies - it’s been another day of this Matt Mullenweg/WP Engine/Automattic/WordPress Foundation/Silver Lake fiasco. Another day, another round of stuff to go over.
Rather than updating the original post right now, I’m posting this supplemental content. I’ll try to go back and update the first Matt Mullenweg Vs. Everyone post with more of the details from this and future posts, but for now, speed matters.
Once again, I’m not a lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice. Eveything is purely my own findings and opinions. Don’t C&D me, bro.
Cease and Desists Are Flying Like Hotcakes
Cease and desists are getting passed out faster than crappy hosting swag at a WordCamp. So far, the ones confirmed are:
- WP Engine sent one to Automattic with a whole lot of juicy details.
- Automattic responded with their own.
Additionally, I’m hearing rumors of legal documents going out to other hosts regarding their usage of terms like “Managed WordPress Hosting” and similar. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any of these personally, so I can’t entirely confirm their existence. When I can, rest assured that I’ll do everything I can to report them.
Tangible legal orders aside, I’ve confirmed that some companies are already tossing up “please do not engage” requests to their employees. To be fair, I don’t blame them - this shit is gonna get even nastier than it already is. Nobody wants to get hit in the crossfire because their employee said something that got misrepresented as an official statement.
I’ve been sitting here, reading, re-reading, digesting, notating, considering, gasping, sighing, smirking, and frowning over these documents since the first one popped up. I keep trying to find the angles - looking between the lines at what might be missing.
So far, it keep leading down the same path: “welp, this ain’t gonna end well…”. It looks like a child having a tantrum because he’s losing the game, even though he had a head start to begin with.
On the same token, I’m also reminding myself that this is a cease and desist letter. Therefore, I want to remind the rest of the community the same:
This. Is. A. Cease. And. Desist. Letter.
Do you know who writes cease and desist letters? Lawyers. Lawyers are professional dickheads. Professional dickheads with one thing on their mind: making money for their clients, usually by means of burying their competition.
WP Engine’s Legal Response
Phew! That last section was way longer than I thought it would be. Anyways, if you’re still with me, let’s start by looking at WP Engine’s legal response (mirror).
Since it’s a fairly short read and I’m sure most of you have already read through it a bunch of times, I’m not going to reiterate their claims. Instead, I’ll stick to what I do best: providing commentary.
(Once more, before any of those professional dickheads come knocking on my door, I have to remind you that these are all claims that have yet to be proven in court. For brevity, I’m not going to bore you with the “allegedly” and “X claims Y did Z” language. Again, not a lawyer - just an asshole who loves the WordPress community.)
Based on how I interpret this C&D from WP Engine, it looks like Matt Mullenweg and Automattic’s CFO Mark Davies tried to play their hand, then failed miserably - on their face, directly into a steaming pile of shit.
It looks like they tried to broker a deal, got rejected at every point, and when that didn’t work, they threw up a hail mary which ultimately backfired.
There’s a few other details here to digest, but we’ll get to those later.
Automattic’s Legal Response
Of course, Automattic responded with their own cease and desist (mirror). But… ummmm… very differently, and in a fashion that puts the entire WordPress community at risk.
(I’m tired of writing legal disclaimers. If you’re a lawyer looking for a reason to come after an unemployed pothead with way too much time on his hands, please kindly scroll up, read the other disclaimers, apply them to this and everything else, then promptly find something better to do with your time).
While WP Engine’s cease and desist letter to Automattic was largely along the lines of: “hey, stop harassing us like this”, Automattic decided to push the boundaries of what their trademark allows - something that I see as very dangerous territory for all WordPress-based businesses.
All in all, here’s how I (crudely) interpret it:
“Please pay us an undisclosed amount - let’s start at $32 million per year - or else we’ll take you to court for merely uttering the word WordPress.”
I don’t know about you, but that makes me quite uncomfortable, to say the least.
Automattic Goes Beyond The C&D
In addition to the cease and desist that Automattic sent to WP Engine, they’ve been making a few other moves behind the scenes. Thank <insert chosen deity> for the members of this great community who have been working around the clock to uncover them.
(Seriously, a huge shoutout to everyone who has been working around the clock to gather information. Y’all are legends).
WordPress Trademark Policy Changes
One of the changes discovered was that WordPress.org has recently changed the wording on their trademark policy.
Until recently, it was clearly stated on page that the usage of “WP” was perfectly fine:
“The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it in any way you see fit.”
(See: archived version)
It now reads as follows:
“The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.”
This raises a few major concerns:
- If the WordPress Foundation and Automattic are separate entities, why is Automattic’s influence so blatantly obvious within the WordPress Foundation’s trademark policy page? While it’s not uncommon for an incident to prompt policy changes, this looks like a clear attack to me.
- Through creative wording, it makes nearly any use of “WP” complicated. If “WP Engine” creates brand confusion, wouldn’t “WP Forms”, “WP Rocket”, or “ManageWP”?
Trademark Filings for “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress”
While trudging through this dumpster fire, the community has also discovered more alarming trademark plays. In July, Automattic filed for trademarks on the terms “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress”.
If these end up getting approved, it’s only a matter of time before every managed WordPress host out there starts getting legal notices.
Here’s Where It Gets Scary For Everyone
We Need Fair Use
While I was writing this post yesterday, I had this whole section about how “fair use” of trademarked terms is immensely important to this whole thing. Fortunately, I decided to give my COVID-addled brain a much needed break, and while doing so, Ryan McCue beat me to it by publishing an excellent post on the topic of fair use.
Take the time to go read his post. It’s pretty much the same key point I was going to drop here.
Thanks, Ryan. Well said.
Nobody Is Safe From Matt’s Mood Swings
Just because WP Engine is the one being explicitly targeted by the legal BS, doesn’t mean that others aren’t already in the crosshairs - they just happen to be Automattic’s primary competitor in the hosting space.
In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he widened his targets soon - all in an effort to prove that he’s not playing favorites regarding the trademark claims.
What if he goes after trademarks for terms like “WordPress Agency”, or hell, even “WordPress Plugin”? What if Automattic’s legal team starts firing off C&Ds against anyone critical of Jetpack? The sky’s the limit.
So What’s Next?
I try to end most of these with at least one positive solution, but frankly, I’m at a loss right now. At the moment, my priority is publishing.
Like I said, there’s another post coming immediately after this one gets published, so until then, hang in there.
Much love, WordPress fam. We got this.
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