WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction • Hacker News Board

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#81

Post by kmeisthax » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 5:41 AM UTC

recursivegirth wrote: post #62

snowwrestler wrote: post #60

I hope Matt considers placing all the community resources of Wordpress into the foundation, including Wordpress.org, constituting an actual board, contributing funds, and setting up a governance and contribution system that matches the open ethos of the license and community. I think this is an area that Drupal gets right, and Dries wrote an interesting post about it in October: https://dri.es/solving-the-maker-taker…

This is pretty on the nose considering Matt's latest blog post[1]. I feel for Matt in some regard, and I do think the lawsuit sets a precedent that OSS developers are required to provide software with warranty. However, I say that with not fully understanding the seperation of actions between Automattic the company and Matt in his own personal capacity. [1] https://ma.tt/2024/12/drupalcon-singapore/

>and I do think the lawsuit sets a precedent that OSS developers are required to provide software with warranty

If Matt hadn't tried to extort WP Engine he would have been perfectly within his right to say "large hosts have to pay to use the WordPress plugin directory". The injunction is purely about one specific company who was allegedly harmed by Automattic.

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#82

Post by mikae1 » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 5:53 AM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #71

jcranmer wrote: post #7

> Here, Mullenweg’s “statement that he had the right to disable WPEngine’s account access and to make changes to the ACF plugin for the sake of public safety[,]” see Opp. at 27-28, is belied by the declarations of WPEngine’s executives stating that the claimed vulnerability was minor [...] @photomatt literally screwed himself over by talking about his actions here, when everyone was screaming at him to shut the fuck…

I'm not sure how many people (including myself) told him to stop talking about the case on Hacker News. He never listened.

Wasn't it good that he kept talking though? Sorry for being crass, but I'd prefer him loosing this case.

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#83

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 5:53 AM UTC

legitster wrote: post #59

jrflowers wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how confident this post is. Blackrock absolutely has private equity operations which they do not hide even a little bit > Private equity is a core pillar of BlackRock’s alternatives platform. BlackRock’s Private Equity teams manage USD$41.9 billion in capital commitments across direct, primary, secondary and co-investments. https://www.blackrock.com/institutions/en-us/strategies/alte... They also do more tradi…

> Our platform takes a holistic approach to investors’ private equity portfolios and is designed to offer strategies and solutions that align with client objectives and deliver persistent outperformance. I get your point, but again, they are doing this on behalf of clients . And 49b is less than a percent of their holdings. So I would still think of them as a brokerage. This would be like calling Uber a restaurant co…

[deleted]

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#84

Post by tmsh » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 5:57 AM UTC

lolinder wrote: post #13

tmsh wrote: post #5

[flagged]

Oof. This comment originally had an introduction attributing the summary to Claude and immediately got downvoted to oblivion. Now it's been edited to remove the attribution and it's resurrected (edit: gone again, so ignore me). Unintended perverse incentives...

I was not aware of the policy. My intent was to save people having to read the many pages when they just want a summary of the facts (and I don’t think most people necessarily have a quick way to summarize so it seemed like it would be useful - in fact there’s another person who I guess innocently posted a similar summary..). I also agree it would be useful for this to be an explicit policy. Anyway, now I know…

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#85

Post by rahimnathwani » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 6:23 AM UTC

legitster wrote: post #59

jrflowers wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how confident this post is. Blackrock absolutely has private equity operations which they do not hide even a little bit > Private equity is a core pillar of BlackRock’s alternatives platform. BlackRock’s Private Equity teams manage USD$41.9 billion in capital commitments across direct, primary, secondary and co-investments. https://www.blackrock.com/institutions/en-us/strategies/alte... They also do more tradi…

> Our platform takes a holistic approach to investors’ private equity portfolios and is designed to offer strategies and solutions that align with client objectives and deliver persistent outperformance. I get your point, but again, they are doing this on behalf of clients . And 49b is less than a percent of their holdings. So I would still think of them as a brokerage. This would be like calling Uber a restaurant co…

  they are doing this on behalf of clients

That's what all private equity firms do. They get paid to manage private equity funds. The managers don't usually put up most of the money. It comes from outside investors.

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#86

Post by duskwuff » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 6:27 AM UTC

sidewndr46 wrote: post #68

duskwuff wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do think the lawsuit sets a precedent that OSS developers are required to provide software with warranty 1) This is a preliminary injunction, not a decision. An injunction which resets a situation to the former status quo pending a decision isn't all that unusual. 2) I don't think the issue here is so much a "warranty" as much as that Automattic (et al) set out to discriminate against WPEngine to obtain a busines…

Given that OSS litigation typically spans decades an injunction might as well be a decision

The open source nature of WordPress is largely irrelevant to this case. Neither party is contesting the copyright status of WordPress or its plugins.

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#87

Post by valunord » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 7:33 AM UTC

It feels as if Automattic doesn't do a complete paradigm shift and become truly open with their software everyone is going to give up on them entirely - at least everyone with significant talent and investment.

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#88

Post by chris_wot » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 8:07 AM UTC

mikae1 wrote: post #82

chris_wot wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how many people (including myself) told him to stop talking about the case on Hacker News. He never listened.

Wasn't it good that he kept talking though? Sorry for being crass, but I'd prefer him loosing this case.

Agreed.

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#89

Post by eXpl0it3r » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:51 AM UTC

snowwrestler wrote: post #60

I hope Matt considers placing all the community resources of Wordpress into the foundation, including Wordpress.org, constituting an actual board, contributing funds, and setting up a governance and contribution system that matches the open ethos of the license and community. I think this is an area that Drupal gets right, and Dries wrote an interesting post about it in October: https://dri.es/solving-the-maker-taker…

I don't see this happening, as it would de-throne Matt and Matt hasn't shown any "remorse", any understanding of him being the issue and that there's a clear conflict of interest. No, in fact he keeps doubling down [1] on claiming that all of his/Automattic's efforts are happening for the good of open source and the community.

[1] https://x.com/automattic/status/1866644684057248090

Re: WPEngine, Inc. vs. Automattic– Order on Motion for Preliminary Injunction

#90

Post by daemin » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 11:48 AM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #52

legitster wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> his own investors at Black Rock Blackrock does not at all operate the same as a private equity and it's a huge pet peeve of mine when people lump them in together. Usually they are confusing Blackrock with Blackstone. All Blackrock does is manage wealth and investments on behalf of individual clients. One of the ways they do this is by sticking private assets into funds for their clients. It's more akin to Vanguard…

People often confuse BlackRock, an asset manager, with Blackstone, which is a private equity firm. However, I doubt Blackstone counts low enough to have bought part of Automattic. Blackstone also owns a considerable portion of BlackRock.

Which company whose name started with Black was the PMC in that case?