WordPress.org has lifted its ban on hosting provider WP Engine until October 1, after imposing a block earlier this week. This blocking prevented several sites from updating their plugins and themes and exposing them to potential security risks.
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, who has been at loggerheads with WP Engine for more than a week, criticized WP Engine’s private equity investor Silver Lake.
“We’ve heard from WP Engine customers who are frustrated with the fact that WP Engine is unable to perform updates, plugin directories, theme directories, and Openverse operations on their sites. It saddens me that they have been negatively impacted by Silver Lake’s commercial decisions,” Mullenweg said on his WordPress.org blog.
“WP Engine ignored our efforts to resolve differences and knew full well that if they decided to enter into a commercial license agreement, they could eliminate access. Heather Brunner, Lee Wittlinger and the Board of Directors decided to take this risk. “WPE also knew that these risks were directly affecting our customers,” he added.
After Mullenweg banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org resources, many in the WordPress community criticized the sudden move, which affected several websites.
Last week, Mullenweg called WP Engine a “cancer on WordPress” and said its contribution to the WordPress ecosystem is lacking. WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and holds the exclusive commercial license for the WordPress trademark, and told Mullenweg to retract those comments. In response, Automattic sent a cease-and-desist letter to WP Engine for alleged trademark infringement.
This fight has implications for the larger ecosystem, as WordPress technology is open source, free, and powers a huge chunk of the Internet – about 40% of websites. Websites can host their own WordPress instance or use a provider like Automattic or WP Engine for a plug-and-play solution.
Over the past few days, Mullenweg has said that his fight is with WP Engine and is mainly about trademarks. But the WordPress community as a whole was unsure about how WordPress could be used on the service, and whether Automattic or Mullenweg would follow suit.
The WordPress Foundation, which owns the WordPress trademark, filed two new trademark applications in July: ‘Managed WordPress’ and ‘Hosted WordPress’.why. Developers and providers are concerned that these trademarks, if approved, could be used against them.
