- The WordPress Foundation is the nonprofit which manages the WordPress code and ecosystem. It theoretically maintains the wordpress.org website (the domain, however, is owned by Matt Mullenweg rather than by the Foundation), which acts as the central repository for all updates, themes, and plugins, as well as managing the WordPress documentation and maintaining a large discussion forum for WordPress devs and users. The Foundation is administered by a board of three people, one of whom is Matt Mullenweg.
- Automattic is the for-profit arm of WordPress, which maintains the wordpress.com web host as well as offering a number of other free and paid addons to WordPress. Matt Mullenweg is the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors, and controls a majority of voting shares in the organization.
- WP Engine is a company which offers managed hosting for WordPress sites. They are a major player in the WP hosting space. It is important to note that the phrase "managed hosting" specifically implies a high level of control by the hosting company over the software and infrastructure; managed hosting services are geared toward less-technical clients and clients who want to offload server administration stuff. People who are purchasing managed hosting, as opposed to unmanaged hosting, are specifically buying the higher level of control by the hosting provider, because it means fewer hassles for them.
- TechCrunch has solid reporting on the initial events: Mullenweg's initial blog post, his WordCamp keynote, his second blog post, and WP Engine's C&D letter. The blog posts are posted to the wordpress.org blog, not to Automattic's blog.
- WP Engine's letter alleges, among other things, that Mullenweg demanded money from WP Engine ostensibly as a licensing fee for the WordPress trademark, but in actuality to refrain from disparaging and defaming them on stage and in blog posts.
- Not alleged in the letter, but reported by attendees to WordCamp, is that Mullenweg engaged in a verbal altercation with WP Engine employees working the WP Engine booth at the show, which included Mullenweg threatening to physically dismantle their booth in the middle of the show. (I can't find my link to this right now, i'll look for it later.)
- Automattic sends a C&D letter of its own to WP Engine, demanding that they stop misusing the WordPress trademark. (Note that the WordPress Foundation is the trademark owner, and Automattic is the sole commercial licensee.) The exhibits are a separate document here.
- Prompted by Mullenweg's multiple blog posts, which get automatically propagated to every WordPress user with the "News Feed" widget on their admin dashboard (which is most WordPress users, as very few actually modify their dashboard), WP Engine disables the "News Feed" dashboard widget for all its customers. (Note that just as with disabling revisions, this is a simple config change, supported by WordPress; it does not involve modifying any code or otherwise "chopping up" WordPress installs.)
- A day after Automattic sends the C&D, the wordpress.org domain (again, maintained by the WordPress Foundation), blocks WP Engine (and thence all of their customers) from accessing the plugin/theme/update repository. This means that none of WP Engine's customers can automatically install plugins or themes, update plugins or themes, or update WordPress itself, including vital security patches. Additionally, all WP Engine user accounts are reportedly banned from the wordpress.org site, meaning they cannot post to the forum or update the plugins which they maintain as an organization. (Need to find the link on this one too.)
- Mullenweg posts about this decision, again to the wordpress.org blog, and includes the following statement: "What I will tell you is that, pending their legal claims and litigation against WordPress.org, WP Engine no longer has free access to WordPress.org’s resources."
- Note, here, that WP Engine's C&D was sent to Automattic, which runs wordpress.com, and at no point has WP Engine made any legal claims whatsoever against wordpress.org or the WordPress Foundation.
- Meanwhile, Pressable (another web hosting company also wholly owned by Automattic), posts a special offer for WP Engine users, offering to buy out their contracts and migrate them for free. (The above is an archival link; at the time of writing, the offer is live and linked here.)
- Mullenweg has also spent the last several days Posting Through It on Reddit (link goes to his user page, which should make all comments visible). (Note that many of these comments were posted significantly after his receipt of the C&D letter from WP Engine.)
- Mullenweg is reportedly also privately exhorting Automattic employees to make supportive posts on their own blogs and social media. There may or may not be an implication that they will be retaliated against if they choose not to do so; reports vary.
- Mullenweg uses the .org blog to post WP Engine Reprieve, stating that they are re-enabling WP Engine's access to the central repository, but only through 30 September (specifically "until October 1, UTC 00:00"), giving WP Engine all of two and a half business days to spin up working mirrors.
- At least two WordPress Core contributors report that their access to the Make Wordpress team was disabled after they criticized Mullenweg on the team's private Slack
- The Verge posts an explainer article
- Josh Collinsworth posts a call to fire Mullenweg which also contains an excellent and comprehensive roundup of events so far
- Mullenweg gives a live interview
Hi, just dropped in to point out the interview you just linked above. It can be tedious to go through, but start around the 15:00 mark where they discuss the term sheet that Automattic sent to WPE - this is important. Item number 4 has is a "prohibition on forking" anything WooCommerce-related. Apparently WPE had changed the affiliate code in the WooCommerce Stripe plugin, so WPE was credited as the affiliate instead of Automattic. I was not aware that WooCommerce got a kickback for every Stripe transaction done this way (must be in the terms somewhere?) but more to the point, I believe that attempting to legally restrict WPE's rights under the GPL here may in fact be a GPL violation -- software distributed to WPE would have more restrictive terms, which the GPL forbids. Would love to hear Mike's take on that one. The redirected revenue and the fact that Matt has been talking about bringing Advanced Custom Fields - which is owned by WPE - into core would seem to muddy the waters surrounding Matt's motivations here.