A California district court judge said on Tuesday that Automattic and its CEO Matt Mullenweg must allow WP Engine to access WordPress.org again. Mullenweg owns this site and it is a library for themes and plugins.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said that WP Engine should be able to access WordPress.org, themes, plugins, and sites the same way they did on September 20, when Mullenweg called WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress” at an event and started a public war against it. Soon after, he stopped WP Engine from going to WordPress.org.
A third-party WordPress hosting company called WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg, saying they were extortionate and abused their power. This led to the preliminary order. Later, WP Engine asked the court to lift the ban.
Because of the ban, WP Engine couldn’t access or update its famous Advanced Custom Field (ACF) plugin. Automattic then took over the plugin, split it into two, and called the new version Secure Custom Fields (SCF). The judge told Automattic to give WP Engine back access to and power over ACF on WordPress.org.
WordPress powers more than 40% of the web. Anyone or any business can use the open-source project to run their own website, but many companies have sprung up to make money off of it by offering hosting services and technical support. Some of these are WP Engine and Automattic, which Mullenweg started in 2005 to make money off of a project he had started two years before.
Also, Automattic has to take down a website with a list of WP Engine users that was made to show how many customers have stopped using WP Engine since Mullenweg started his campaign. Also, it needs to get rid of a box on its login page that asks users to confirm they are not connected with WP Engine.
Automattic said in a statement that the case will not be dropped.
“Today’s decision is a preliminary order meant to keep things the same.” “It was made without our motion to dismiss, discovery, or the counterclaims we will soon file against WP Engine,” the company said in a statement.
What WP Engine said about the court’s decision: “We thank the Court for granting our request for a preliminary injunction.” This will make the WordPress ecosystem more stable. The order will give the WordPress ecosystem the steadiness and safety it needs. A spokesperson for WP Engine said, “Our main goal is to serve our partners and customers and work with the community to find ways to keep the WordPress community strong and thriving.”
The mess has made people wonder about the open-source structure of WordPress and how stable the community is. People have also talked about what a fair addition to an open-source project is, since Mullenweg said that WP Engine wasn’t doing enough to make the WordPress project better.
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