Why the feud matters to the internet

One of the world’s largest web publishing platforms – used by much of the internet – is embroiled in a row that is affecting thousands of companies around the world.

Although most of the work WordPress does is not seen by internet users, it says it contains website building tools behind the scenes power 40% of the world’s websites.

That means the disagreement with a company called WP Engine is causing disruption for the large number of businesses that rely on the two organizations to keep their websites running.

Tricia Fox, who runs an agency that manages – and is in the queue – around 70 websites, told the BBC: “I can’t run a business at this level of uncertainty.”

The very wide use of WordPress makes it “critical for the internet”, according to Daniel Card, fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.

But that also means that “his actions online are definitely having a big ripple effect,” he says — a ripple effect that companies like Tricia Fox are really starting to feel.

The feud between the companies starts with the fact that WordPress has two sides: the non-profit arm, called WordPress.org, and the for-profit arm, called Automattic.

WordPress.org makes the source code open, meaning anyone can use it for free to create and redistribute their own tools.

That’s what WP Engine does to run a web hosting service.

But in exchange for the source code, WordPress expects those who use it to contribute to its maintenance, for example by fixing bugs and testing new features.

The boss of WordPress accuses WP Engine of not doing this and even calls it ‘a cancer for WordPress’.

As a result, at the end of September, he forbidden WP Engine prevents the use of important parts of WordPress.

WP Engine denies these claims.

“We are proud of our extensive contributions to the WordPress ecosystem,” WP Engine wrote in a post on X/Twitter.

In the middle of this row are the numerous websites and blogs that rely on the services of the two companies.

People like Tricia Fox, who uses a subsidiary of WP Engine to host the websites her company serves.

She now says she is “almost certain” she will migrate her websites to another host – a decision she says will be worth “tens of thousands of pounds” in the coming years.

She wants to leave WP Engine because the consequences have resulted in dozens of hours of extra work for her staff, increasing costs for her company.

“The team doesn’t know if it’s going to work today or not,” Fox told the BBC.

But she worries that even a costly switch from WP Engine won’t solve her problems because she would still be using a different host based on the WordPress code.

“What’s to stop WordPress from doing this again? [to another company]?” she asks.

“At this time, we are currently focused on resolving our dispute with WP Engine,” WordPress said when the BBC asked whether it would go after other companies in a similar manner.

The row also underlines how important the open source principle is for the online economy.

While big tech may grab the headlines, for many people and companies it’s something much less obvious that keeps them afloat.

“Open source is all about sharing code and standards so that everyone benefits, and it’s a big part of what makes the Internet work,” says Daniel Card.

And because WordPress is such a big player in that world, when it makes changes to its tools, he adds, “it’s felt by users everywhere and often impacts the hosting, plugins and web standards across the Internet.” .”

While much of the feud between the two sides has taken place via official social media accounts and blog posts, it has also spilled into the courtroom.

WordPress.org cannot force WP Engine to contribute to its open source project, but it does have control over its trademarks.

It states that WP Engine mentions WordPress in its marketing tools to help sell its product – and therefore should pay to use the trademark.

“Any company that makes hundreds of millions of dollars from an open source project should give something back, and if they don’t, they can’t use the trademarks,” Mullenweg wrote in an article. blog post.

The trademarks do not cover the abbreviation “WP”, but the WordPress Foundation says, “Please don’t use it in a way that confuses people.”

WP Engine has now done that submitted a lawsuit against Mr. Mullenweg and Automattic, including allegations of attempted extortion, defamation and violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

It claims that Automattic told WP Engine that they would have to pay “tens of millions of dollars” to continue using the WordPress trademarks.

WP Engine has since asked that the legal process is being expedited as companies suffer.

The recent filing claimed that the number of cancellation requests it receives has increased by 14% compared to normal trading, as a result of the disruption.

It says it is also losing out on potential new customers due to uncertainty about future access to WordPress products.

Automattic has called the lawsuit “baseless” and “flawed from start to finish.”

“We strongly deny WP Engine’s allegations – which are gross mischaracterizations of reality,” it said in a statement, adding that it would “vigorously litigate this absurd filing.”