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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.
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This is really the crux of the issue, I think. I'm not a lawyer. WordPress foundation believes that WP Engine is abusing their trademark, and looking at WP Engine, they really do make it seem like
they are WordPress, or at least are the best implementation of WordPress. And they've made a fortune out of it. So, of course, I'm sure WordPress' lawyer greenlit them in saying: "you can't use the tools we provide to access our labor, for free, if we're actively in a legal battle." I don't think anyone would think that's strange. They can still download WordPress, and use it under GPL, but they can't use WordPress.org's repository and servers.
This is a very interesting and complicated situation, though, because it's all about open source software. On the one hand, WordPress is OSS, but the licensing for GPL has implemented some rules and restrictions for WordPress which I think most people ignore completely. Are derivative works like WP Engine forced to comply with GPL? And, does the GPL license allow unfettered access to WordPress' servers in addition to their code repository? Trademarks, on the other hand, are a different best entirely, and I'm sure there's going to be a good argument about what is considered fair use.
Can I call myself a "WordPress developer", but I can't call myself a "developer for WordPress", because I don't actively develop WordPress?
Does this have an even bigger implication with software development on the Web? Right now, if I couldn't use OSS through Packagist or NPM to build software for my clients, and I had to recreate everything from scratch, it would not only greatly extend the development timeline, but it would cost a fortune.
From their license page:
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There is some legal grey area regarding what is considered a derivative work, but we feel strongly that plugins and themes are derivative work and thus inherit the GPL license.
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From Matt directly:
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WP Engine wants to control your WordPress experience, they need to run their own user login system, update servers, plugin directory, theme directory, pattern directory, block directory, translations, photo directory, job board, meetups, conferences, bug tracker, forums, Slack, Ping-o-matic, and showcase. Their servers can no longer access our servers for free.
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This is ultimately going to be the legal test, and I'm somewhat surprised it has taken this long for OSS to be challenged around WordPress. WP Engine basically takes WordPress, heavily manipulates it, possibly makes it less secure, and then sells that AND the
hosting. If they just sold WordPress hosting, like Vacares, or MojoHost do, then that would be totally different. WP Engine is completely dependent on WordPress, their contributions to WordPress are poor, and they are actively biting the hand that feeds.
I personally don't like the way it calls into question whether I can use the term WordPress when I advertise my services, but I also don't think WP Engine are the good guys here, and I think they're going to ultimately lose this battle.