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Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

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Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#33

Post by unsnap_biceps »

Crosseye_Jack wrote: post #25

To see the requirement for the non-affilation goto https://login.wordpress.org/ EDIT (to save having a 2nd post). Looking at the HTML tags for the requirement it has the class "login-lawsuit", so guessing this is tried to the suit WPE are bringing against WordPress/Matt. On one hand, I personally feel like Matt is trying to speed run burning all the goodwill of the wordpress project, on the other hand if you are bein…

Generally the recommendation is to freeze current ties with said entity until the court case gets worked out. By aggressively targeting the employees of said other organization, you're risking it being used against you in the ongoing court cases.

Regardless, .org and .com are claimed to be separate legal entities, so there is no lawsuit against .org. This is just an escalation out of a sense of moral righteousness.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#34

Post by unsnap_biceps »

moomin wrote: post #14

What is going on here? I understand that open source companies have a free rider problem, and will naturally take steps to deal with that, but some of the recent activities seem… strange. I’m thinking part of the problem is that the software itself is GPL and so is it’s ecosystem, which means that the standard next step of changing the license (followed by an inevitable fork) is infeasible.

It's not that at all. Matt wants money to flow to his commercial entity, or if they donate developers to the project, he still gets to see everything about their books. It's an invasive agreement designed to give his commercial entity a competitive advantage.

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#36

Post by threatofrain »

0xy wrote: post #11
Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #4

This is just getting petty at this point. What kind of normal person or business operates this way - especially during an ongoing lawsuit. I can't see how anybody who knows a bit about the situation would ever want to continue to be affiliated with Wordpress knowing this guy could go over the top at any moment.

I have no dog in this race, but the behavior does seem ill-advised even if you look at it through a pure legal lens. WP Engine's lawyers must be having a field day with this stuff. Is he just totally ignoring his own lawyers? He has to be, because no lawyer who charges more than $20 an hour would tell him any of this is advisable.

If I'm not mistaken both sides have hired some extremely prominent lawyers (Rachel Kassabian, Neal Katyal).

Re: Wordpress.org Login: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way"

#38

Post by danillonunes »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #34
moomin wrote: post #14

What is going on here? I understand that open source companies have a free rider problem, and will naturally take steps to deal with that, but some of the recent activities seem… strange. I’m thinking part of the problem is that the software itself is GPL and so is it’s ecosystem, which means that the standard next step of changing the license (followed by an inevitable fork) is infeasible.

It's not that at all. Matt wants money to flow to his commercial entity, or if they donate developers to the project, he still gets to see everything about their books. It's an invasive agreement designed to give his commercial entity a competitive advantage.

I don't even think this is about money anymore. Matt may have started this cruzade for money, but at this point is just pettiness and refusal to backpedal.
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