My experiences with Automattic: Part 3 • Hacker News Board

Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3

#61

Post by belorn » Fri, Oct 18, 2024, 12:29 AM UTC

aldavigdis wrote: post #41

belorn wrote: post #21

> I can’t see how Matt’s recent ideas on the rights to use the WordPress logo, the name or the wordmark requiring companies that he doesn’t like to pay up are in compliance with the GPL license. Trademarks and logos are not attached to the software license. The Linux kernel has a trademark page ( https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/the-linux-mark ) which is separated from the gplv2 license. Python has their own tra…

Author here. To clarify, the trademark rights were transferred to the WordPress Foundation 14 years ago and then licenced to Automattic to use for WordPress.com. (The internal verbal story was that it even involved a separate shade of blue to identify .com from .org.) The foundation was open about the use of the WordPress logo, wordmark and the WP acronym until a couple of weeks ago. (Here's the previous version of t…

If your intention is to highlight the changes in the policy, I would remove the word "gpl" in that above quoted text, since the trademark is not under GPL. I would also enjoy reading a take on what the policy has changed, the implication of it, and how it effects the ecosystem. Such analysis is especially interesting if you are a trademark lawyer by profession, or if a lawyer was consulted before publishing in order to keep the legal aspects as true to trademark law as possible.

Companies and organizations do update their trademark policies, so I am not sure how set in stone a policy is in term of case law. If you have such long history of case law, I would enjoy reading it. Software do change licenses from time to time (VLC comes in mind, but there are plenty of other examples, including projects going from a permissive BSD license to something like AGPL). Old version of the software are under the old license, but all new version of the software will be covered under the new license. Trademark as a concept is quite different here since it always refer to the current product or company.

Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3

#62

Post by ndheebebe » Fri, Oct 18, 2024, 1:46 AM UTC

aldavigdis wrote: post #55

ndheebebe wrote: post #4

> Also that WP Engine was not actually providing WordPress because they were limiting a single resource-heavy feature. As if WordPress.com hasn’t been going even further in providing a limited WordPress experience since the beginning. I was thinking the same thing! > This means that many of the people who work for Automattic are technically external contractors despite acting on behalf of the company, holding busines…

Author here. The US/CA statues of limitations are also extremely short compared to what I am used to, so I was too late for to perform any legal action over this stateside after I recovered somewhat from all of this. (There may be a way to go against the EU subsidiaries, but I'm not doing it alone.) (Anyway. Matt. If you're reading this, then I've seen you've been very generous with your checkbook for the past couple…

Sorry to hear that (about the mental and financial health). Hope it gets better.

Appreciate the reply! I also commented more for the general readership of HN.

Rights are kept by exercising them.

You rarely want to go to court (maybe 0.001 times per lifetime) but just indicating you know your rights goes a long way. Read your country's laws - there are probably friendly descriptions online.

Ideally work somewhere where this is not needed though.

For example if the company is hostile to basic things like if you country has sick leave and you take it and it is an issue then I would say move on quickly. Unless you are happy. Maybe they are paying a lot or you are a founder, that would be different.

So know your rights. Understand a contract is subject to wider laws and some conditions may be severed and unenforcable.

Really. If I had to choose learn Rust or learn some law. Learn some law.

IANAL, but a citizen, which is the point!

Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3

#63

Post by aldavigdis » Fri, Oct 18, 2024, 2:37 AM UTC

ndheebebe wrote: post #62

aldavigdis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. The US/CA statues of limitations are also extremely short compared to what I am used to, so I was too late for to perform any legal action over this stateside after I recovered somewhat from all of this. (There may be a way to go against the EU subsidiaries, but I'm not doing it alone.) (Anyway. Matt. If you're reading this, then I've seen you've been very generous with your checkbook for the past couple…

Sorry to hear that (about the mental and financial health). Hope it gets better. Appreciate the reply! I also commented more for the general readership of HN. Rights are kept by exercising them. You rarely want to go to court (maybe 0.001 times per lifetime) but just indicating you know your rights goes a long way. Read your country's laws - there are probably friendly descriptions online. Ideally work somewhere wher…

I love it when a non-lawyer mansplains contract law to me. Do you want my number too?

Do you think I'm fucking stupid?

Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3

#64

Post by GraemeMeyer » Fri, Oct 18, 2024, 5:14 AM UTC

aldavigdis wrote: post #63

ndheebebe wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that (about the mental and financial health). Hope it gets better. Appreciate the reply! I also commented more for the general readership of HN. Rights are kept by exercising them. You rarely want to go to court (maybe 0.001 times per lifetime) but just indicating you know your rights goes a long way. Read your country's laws - there are probably friendly descriptions online. Ideally work somewhere wher…

I love it when a non-lawyer mansplains contract law to me. Do you want my number too? Do you think I'm fucking stupid?

I think ndheebebe was trying to support you and provide some information and encouragement to other readers and commenters.

This is a bizarre overreaction that does you no favours.

Re: My experiences with Automattic: Part 3

#65

Post by aldavigdis » Fri, Oct 18, 2024, 11:01 AM UTC

GraemeMeyer wrote: post #64

aldavigdis wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it when a non-lawyer mansplains contract law to me. Do you want my number too? Do you think I'm fucking stupid?

I think ndheebebe was trying to support you and provide some information and encouragement to other readers and commenters. This is a bizarre overreaction that does you no favours.

I'm sorry. I will never get married with this demeanour.