The impact of the Mullenweg-WP Engine disagreement on WordPress users.

WordPress and Mullenweg
• WordPress is an open-source software used to build websites, blogs, and ecommerce portals.
• It is available under a GPL license, allowing modifications and distribution of new versions.
• A WordPress website can be self-hosted or managed by a third party, such as WP Engine.

Matt Mullenweg’s Role
• Mullenweg, founder and CEO of Automattic, owns WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
• He also personally owns WordPress.org, which dispenses open-source WordPress for download.

The Trademark Dispute
• Mullenweg accused WP Engine of being a “cancer” to the WordPress community, citing its decision to disable the ability of WordPress installed on sites it hosts to record changes made to content.
• WP Engine responded by quoting a line from the WordPress Foundation website’s page on “Trademark Policy” and claiming it has been using the “WP” label for over a decade without punitive action.

Unprecedented Ban
• On September 24, Mullenweg claimed WP Engine had the option to license the WordPress trademark for 8% of their revenue.
• The next day, Mullenweg banned WP Engine from directly accessing updates and plug-ins hosted on WordPress.org, breaking the normal function of several lakh WordPress websites.

Controversy and Conflict of Interest
• Many developers have construed Mullenweg’s decision to ban WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org as a subversion of the WordPress open-source community’s equal-opportunity structure.
• Mullenweg has maintained it isn’t entitled to access WordPress.org because such access is vouchsafed for services that benefit the WordPress community.