Judge orders WordPress parent company to stop blocking WP Engine

Why it matters: A ineligible feud betwixt nan co-founder of WordPress and a backstage equity-owned WordPress hosting level has taken a crisp move successful favour of nan latter. WP Engine users tin resume normal operations but stay stuck successful nan crossfire of a conflict that could effect devices captious to galore websites.

A California judge has granted hosting level WP Engine a impermanent injunction against WordPress genitor institution Automattic. Until nan tribunal conflict betwixt them is resolved, WordPress.com tin nary longer artifact WP Engine from accessing its toolchain.

The tribunal confirmed nan injunction partially retired of interest for WP Engine users, who aren't progressive successful nan ineligible warfare betwixt nan level and Automattic. Blocking WP Engine prevented users from viewing WordPress.com updates and accessing different important tools. WP Engine praised nan ruling, saying it preserves nan stableness basal for collaboration wrong nan WordPress community.

We are grateful that nan tribunal has granted our mobility for a preliminary injunction that restores entree to and functionality of wordpressdotorg for WP Engine, its customers and its users.
This ruling provides much-needed stableness for nan WordPress ecosystem. We deeply…

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg founded WordPress, an open-source contented guidance strategy that runs astir 40 percent of websites. In September, he accused WP Engine, a hosting work that uses WordPress tools, of profiting by tricking customers into equating it pinch WordPress. In a scathing attack, he called nan platform, which received astir of its first finance from backstage equity patient Silver Lake, a "cancer" connected WordPress.

WP Engine retaliated pinch a cease-and-desist, defending its usage of nan WordPress sanction nether adjacent usage and demanding that Mullenweg extremity his defamatory statements. Automattic, claiming exclusive WordPress Foundation rights, responded by blocking WP Engine from utilizing WordPress.org package and imposing a paid licensing interest equaling 8 percent of WP Engine's monthly revenue.

Today's ruling is simply a preliminary bid designed to support nan position quo. It was made without nan use of discovery, our mobility to dismiss, aliases nan counterclaims we will beryllium filing against WP Engine shortly. We look guardant to prevailing astatine proceedings arsenic we proceed to protect the…

The WordPress Foundation is simply a non-profit supporting WordPress.org, nan open-source group of devices underpinning WordPress.com, nan free work galore websites use. Although nan main conflict is astir who has nan correct to untung from WordPress, it has besides ignited chat complete nan meaning of nan word "open source."

David Hansson, creator of nan open-source web model Ruby connected Rails, claimed that Automattic's trademark declare goes against nan tone of open-source improvement and nan GNU General Public License (GPL). By charging royalties, Automattic is theoretically treating WordPress.org arsenic proprietary alternatively than open-source software, which could harm nan credibility of nan GPL and nan Free Open Source Software movement.