Perfect way to kill the project [LWN.net]

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 12, 2025 2:02 UTC (Sun) by aragilar (subscriber, #122569)
In reply to: Perfect way to kill the project by burki99
Parent article: Automattic reduces WordPress contributions

My understanding is that every WordPress plugin has to be GPL due to the way they connect into WordPress, that's why the trademarks are being lent on (and why Automattic could legally fork WP-Engine's plugins). It sounds very much like the ecosystem is held together by good will and trademarks (and hence that's why everyone is being weird about money and the apparent breaking of norms, because they can't withdraw their code), because the licensing is such that everyone has to open source their plugins if they don't want run their own hosting platform.

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Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 12:11 UTC (Mon) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link] (1 responses)

Technically the GPL does not require you to publish your software for everyone to use, it just requires that you give source code to users of the software.

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 17:00 UTC (Mon) by edeloget (subscriber, #88392) [Link]

That's not enough : the GPL also mandate that the user is given some important rights, such as the right to modify and redistribute using the same license ; so even if you make me pay for your GPL software I still have the right to redistribute a free-as-in-beer version of the same source code (and those to which I distribute it also have the same rights).

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 12:57 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> because the licensing is such that everyone has to open source their plugins if they don't want run their own hosting platform.

And apparently the system is also designed such that running your own hosting platform is well-nigh impossible ...

Cheers,
Wol

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 15:16 UTC (Mon) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link] (3 responses)

I think at this point though it's inevitable that a consortium of Auttomatic's competitors and customers will stand up a new infrastructure brand and the ecosystem will insulate itself from the risk of a single rogue upstream.

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 15:37 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (2 responses)

The problem is that the act of trying to do that is a Hail Mary "succeed or die trying". And it's likely to kill everyone, WordPress included ... the option that has the least risk for everyone is a hostile takeover of wordpress.org ... and Matt is likely to press the MAD button ...

Cheers,
Wol

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 17:17 UTC (Mon) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link] (1 responses)

It's primarily a brand management and marketing problem, not technical though, right? All of the developers, customers and service providers in the ecosystem have source code licenses, in the same way Autommatic "took over" maintenance of a plugin which they depended on that was developed by a competitor, so too could their competitors. The real sticking point is that they won't be able to use the WordPress(tm) trademark, except by reference, without an unlikely shake up of the WordPress Foundation/wordpress.org, so they need to get a critical mass to understand that "GrafSquash(tm)" or whatever is the "new" WordPress with detailed instructions on how to change the update repo for an existing install, for people who are not that invested in the drama. There seems to be plenty of president of forks moving on with a new trademark back in the day with Hudson/Jenkins, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, or Mambo/Joomla and other examples im forgetting.

In fact the OpenOffice v LibreOffice transition is a cautionary tale on the power of branding and trademarks, since IIUC the 2014 version of OpenOffice still has substantial new installs even though it's effectively abandoned, because its well known.

WordPress has such a large installed base it's not credible to me that it could be killed, no matter what nonsense Autommatic gets up to, but it could definitely have a substantial change in how maintenance is funded and its name.

Perfect way to kill the project

Posted Jan 13, 2025 21:33 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> It's primarily a brand management and marketing problem, not technical though, right?

Yes. Somebody needs to fork Wordpress, set up a competing organisation, and win the battle for customer support. Which is likely to attract Matt's ire, and quite likely imho to trigger MAD.

We'll see. If we're lucky, the courts will wrest Wordpress.org from Matt on the grounds of fraud, and then let the chips fall where they may ...

Cheers,
Wol