Mullenweg Disgusted as WP Engine Regains Access

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has publicly expressed his strong disapproval after a recent court ruling allowed WP Engine to regain control over their Advanced Custom Forms (ACF) plugin and re-establish login access to WordPress.org. Mullenweg’s reaction to the court’s decision was swift, labelling the situation as both disappointing and troubling for the broader open-source community.

Mullenweg, who has been a prominent advocate for open-source software and the principles of free collaboration, was particularly outspoken about the legal requirement for him to provide what he called “free labour” to WP Engine. His comments reflect deep concerns about the implications of such rulings on the future of open-source projects, which rely heavily on voluntary contributions from developers. The court’s decision to force Mullenweg into compliance has sparked significant debate about the balance between legal obligations and the values of open-source development.

In a series of tweets, Mullenweg shared his frustration and disappointment. He tweeted, “I’m disgusted and sickened by being legally forced to provide free labour and services to @wpengine, a dangerous precedent that should chill every open-source maintainer.” His words echo the concerns of many within the open-source community, who fear that such decisions could undermine the voluntary nature of open-source projects and create undue pressure on maintainers. Despite his personal disagreements with the ruling, Mullenweg made it clear that he fully complied with the court’s order, as he is legally required to do.

Further elaborating on the situation, Mullenweg pointed out that while changes had been made to the WordPress.org site, WP Engine had not yet made any alterations to the ACF slug. This, he suggested, raised questions about the urgency of the situation, implying that the emergency claimed by WP Engine might not have been as critical as initially presented. According to Mullenweg, if the situation had truly been as urgent as WP Engine had suggested, one might have expected immediate changes to the plugin or other components, but this had not happened.

The incident has sparked broader discussions within the WordPress and open-source communities about the potential risks of legal action affecting projects that rely on community contributions and volunteer effort. Many developers have expressed concern that the court’s decision could set a precedent that might make it easier for companies to demand control over open-source projects, potentially eroding the collaborative spirit that has defined the open-source movement for decades.

The reaction to Matt Mullenweg’s tweet was somewhat expected, as many people quickly voiced their own perspectives on the situation. One response reflected Mullenweg’s own words back at him, expressing disappointment with the way the software was released under the GPL licence. The individual pointed out that Mullenweg had created a system where the software became heavily dependent on a private website and APIs owned by him, only to be surprised when he could not discriminate against users. This comment seemed to suggest that Mullenweg, as the co-founder of WordPress, should have anticipated the consequences of such a structure.

Another person took a different approach, accusing Mullenweg of misleading the WordPress community. They suggested that Mullenweg had tricked the community into providing free labour for his personal .org website, which many had believed was owned by the WordPress Foundation. This comment raised questions about the transparency of Mullenweg’s involvement in the management of WordPress and whether the community had been fully aware of how much control he held over the platform.

Despite fully complying with the court order, Mullenweg remained critical of WP Engine’s actions. He pointed out that the company had yet to change the plugin slug, which led him to question the urgency of their claims. If the situation were truly as urgent as WP Engine had portrayed, Mullenweg suggested, there should have been immediate changes. His comments hinted that WP Engine might have overstated the necessity of their actions.

Following Mullenweg’s remarks, the ACF team took control of the plugin slug once more. On December 13, 2024, WP Engine’s official Advanced Custom Fields account confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that they had regained access to the plugin. As a result, the WordPress.org plugin directory now displays the original ACF plugin, as opposed to Mullenweg’s forked version, Secure Custom Fields. This move marked the end of the latest chapter in the ongoing dispute over control of the plugin and its relationship with the WordPress community.

The ACF team took to social media to announce that their account access had been restored on WordPress.org, along with control of the ACF plugin repository. In their tweet, they reassured users that the ACF team, the one they trusted, would once again be maintaining the plugin. They clarified that no action was required from users who had installed ACF directly from the ACF website or those using ACF PRO. This announcement was intended to ease any concerns regarding the plugin’s ongoing management and upkeep.

Many members of the WordPress community responded positively to the news, expressing congratulations to WP Engine for their efforts. One user simply offered their congratulations, stating, “Excellent news. Congratulations!” It was clear that a significant portion of the community felt that the situation had been resolved favourably.

Others expressed their relief that ACF’s access had been fully restored. One individual tweeted their support, saying, “Happy for @wpengine. You have done a great job.” It was evident that many in the community were pleased to see the plugin being actively managed again by the ACF team.

Some even expressed their enthusiasm with simple but emphatic reactions, such as “👏🏼 YES!!!!” which was accompanied by a link to a post celebrating the update. This showed the general feeling of excitement among users who were pleased to see the situation move towards a positive resolution.

However, not all reactions were positive. One user expressed a sense of betrayal, stating, “NEVER trusting wordpress dot org again.” This comment reflected the ongoing frustration of some members of the WordPress community, who remained disillusioned by the events surrounding the dispute over plugin control.

Origin Of Mullenweg – WP Engine Dispute

Matt Mullenweg has publicly expressed concerns regarding WP Engine’s contributions to the WordPress ecosystem. He claims that the company does not contribute enough to support the open-source project and has raised issues about WP Engine’s use of the term “WordPress.” Mullenweg has written about his years-long attempt to have WP Engine pay what he believes is a “fair share” back into the WordPress project, reflecting his frustrations with the company’s involvement.

On September 20, 2024, Mullenweg took the opportunity to publicly denounce WP Engine during his speech at the United States WordCamp conference. This event followed a disagreement where WP Engine had declined to meet his demands for $30 million, further intensifying the tensions between the two parties.

In response to Mullenweg’s actions, WP Engine took legal action, suing Automattic (Mullenweg’s company) and Matt Mullenweg himself in federal court. As a result of the lawsuit, WP Engine was granted a preliminary injunction, which required Automattic and Mullenweg to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org. This included access to the plugin repository and login credentials, as well as the removal of a WP Engine customer list from a website Mullenweg had created, which encouraged customers to leave WP Engine.

Mullenweg’s History Of Disputes

There is a history of Matt Mullenweg being involved in disputes related to GPL licensing of code and trademarks. One of the most prominent instances occurred in 2010 when Mullenweg challenged Chris Pearson and his theme company, Thesis, over software licensing. Pearson himself admitted that, at the time, he was ignorant about the intricacies of software licensing, which led to a significant confrontation between the two.

Mullenweg escalated the dispute by offering Thesis customers a premium theme of their choice in exchange for abandoning the Thesis theme. This move caused Pearson to lose a substantial amount of business, and he gained a negative reputation within the WordPress community. In a blog post, Pearson reflected on the situation, acknowledging his mistakes and the aggressive actions that followed:
“…I was woefully ignorant about software licensing, and I felt as though I was being backed into a corner and asked to accept something I didn’t fully understand. Instead of handling it in a measured, polite manner, I was a jerk.
I made a mistake, and I paid dearly for it. The WordPress community’s reaction towards me was incredibly negative, but on top of that, Matt did whatever he could to further damage what was left of my business. His most blatant effort in this regard was making a public offer to buy Thesis customers the premium, GPL-licensed Theme of their choice if they quit using Thesis.”

Three years later, Mullenweg took further action by purchasing the Thesis.com domain name, which led to another dispute with Pearson. The reason for Mullenweg’s pursuit of the domain was never entirely clear, but many within the WordPress community viewed it as an act of “retribution” against Pearson for the earlier conflict.

A report on WP Tavern about Automattic’s actions drew largely negative responses from the community. One commenter voiced the sentiment that, while Automattic’s actions were not illegal, they were unethical:
“I don’t think anyone is saying what Automattic did was illegal, they’re saying it was unethical.
It’s possible to be a jerk without breaking the law, but that doesn’t make it acceptable behaviour.”

In 2016, Mullenweg initiated another dispute, this time with Wix over GPL licensing. Wix’s CEO responded with a blog post outlining how Wix had contributed to over 224 open-source projects. He stated:
“Yes, we did use the WordPress open source library for a minor part of the application (that is the concept of open source, right?), and everything we improved there or modified, we submitted back as open source, see here in this link – you should check it out, pretty cool way of using it on mobile native. I really think you guys can use it with your app (and it is open source, so you are welcome to use it for free). And, by the way, the part that we used was in fact developed by another and modified by you.”

Mullenweg Complies To Court Order… With Humor

The court’s ruling underscores the significance of adhering to legal agreements within the WordPress ecosystem. WP Engine’s victory in this case could strengthen its position as it continues to pursue its ongoing federal lawsuit. In response to their loss, Automattic has expressed their intention to challenge the decision in a full trial, saying:

“We look forward to prevailing at trial as we continue to protect the open-source ecosystem during full-fact discovery and a full review of the merits.”

Despite the ongoing legal battles, Matt Mullenweg has continued to provoke WP Engine, albeit with a lighter approach this time. In a somewhat humorous move, Automattic removed a checkmark from the WordPress.org login page that previously required users to affirm they were not associated with WP Engine. The checkmark has since been replaced with a playful new checkbox, asking users to confirm that they believe pineapple on pizza is delicious.