Why contention matters to the internet

One of the world’s largest online publishing platforms – used by a large part of the internet – is locked in a row that is affecting thousands of businesses around the world.

While most of the work WordPress does is invisible to web users, it says its tools behind the scenes of building the web power 40% from the websites of the world.

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

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

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

But it also means that “her actions definitely have a huge ripple effect online,” he says — a ripple effect firms like Tricia Fox are really starting to feel.

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

WordPress.org is open source, which means anyone can use it to create and redistribute their own tools for free.

This is 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 WordPress boss accuses WP Engine of failing to do so, going so far as to call it “a cancer for WordPress”.

As a result, at the end of September, he prohibited WP Engine by using the main parts of WordPress.

WP Engine refutes these claims.

“We’re proud of our extensive contributions to the WordPress ecosystem,” WP Engine has written in a post on X/Twitter.

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

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

She now says she is “almost certain” to migrate her websites to another host – a decision she says is worth “tens of thousands of pounds” over the next few years.

She wants to leave WP Engine because the fallout has resulted in dozens of hours of extra work for her staff – increasing costs for her business.

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

But she worries that even a costly move away from WP Engine might not solve her problems, since she would still be using another host based on WordPress code.

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

“At the moment we are focused on resolving our dispute with WP Engine,” WordPress said when the BBC asked if it would go after other companies in a similar fashion.

The row also underscores how important the open source principle is to the online economy.

While big tech may grab the headlines, for many people and businesses it’s something far less glamorous that keeps them going.

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

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

While most of the bickering between the two sides has taken place through official social media accounts and blog posts, it has also entered the courtroom.

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

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

“Any business that makes hundreds of millions of dollars from an open source project has to give back, and if they don’t, then they can’t use their trademarks,” Mullenweg wrote in one. blog post.

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

WP Engine has meanwhile deposited a legal case against Mr. Mullenweg and Automattic, with allegations of attempted extortion, defamation and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act among his complaints.

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

WP Engine has since then asked for the legal process to be expedited as her businesses are suffering.

Its latest filing claimed that the number of cancellation requests it receives has increased by 14% compared to normal trading as a result of the outage.

It said it is also losing out on potential new customers because of uncertainty over its future access to WordPress products.

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

“We vehemently deny WP Engine’s claims — which are gross mischaracterizations of reality,” she said in a statement, adding that she would “vigorously prosecute this absurd filing.”