Automattic's 'Nuclear War' Over WordPress Access Sparks Potential Class Action (arstechnica.com) 10
An anonymous reader shares a report: The company behind WordPress, Automattic Inc., and its founder, Matt Mullenweg, continue to face backlash over a "nuclear war" started with WP Engine (WPE) that allegedly messed with maintenance and security of hundreds of thousands of websites.
In a proposed class action lawsuit filed this weekend, a WPE customer, Ryan Keller, accused Automattic and Mullenweg of "deliberately abusing their power and control over the WordPress ecosystem to purposefully, deliberately, and repeatedly disrupt contracts" -- all due to a supposed trademark infringement claim. If granted, the class would include "all persons in the United States who had ongoing active WPE WordPress Web Hosting Plans on or before September 24, 2024 through December 10, 2024."
WPE had previously sued Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging that the attack on WPE was actually an attempt to extort what Keller alleged was "tens of millions of dollars" in payments from WPE for using the WordPress trademark. Mullenweg made it clear that the value of the payments was "based on what he thought WPE could afford, rather than what the value of the trademark actually was," Keller's complaint alleged. Automattic's "poorly disguised attempt to extort WPE," Keller alleged, was lobbed "against the threat of making it virtually impossible for WPE (and its customers) to conduct its ordinary business."
In a proposed class action lawsuit filed this weekend, a WPE customer, Ryan Keller, accused Automattic and Mullenweg of "deliberately abusing their power and control over the WordPress ecosystem to purposefully, deliberately, and repeatedly disrupt contracts" -- all due to a supposed trademark infringement claim. If granted, the class would include "all persons in the United States who had ongoing active WPE WordPress Web Hosting Plans on or before September 24, 2024 through December 10, 2024."
WPE had previously sued Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging that the attack on WPE was actually an attempt to extort what Keller alleged was "tens of millions of dollars" in payments from WPE for using the WordPress trademark. Mullenweg made it clear that the value of the payments was "based on what he thought WPE could afford, rather than what the value of the trademark actually was," Keller's complaint alleged. Automattic's "poorly disguised attempt to extort WPE," Keller alleged, was lobbed "against the threat of making it virtually impossible for WPE (and its customers) to conduct its ordinary business."
Re: (Score:3)
Why would you say that?
Reneging on a deal, then extorting money from a single specific entity by threatening to cause their business damage unless they paid explicitly based on how much they could afford is usually the sort of thing people go to jail for.
Sounds more "RICO" than "within his rights"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe, but that is to be established in court.
Matt Mullenweg will most likely have to show a legal reason for his taking the actions he took - which is to say a reason other than attempting to disrupt a competitor's business relationships specifically, and it appears that they would have a good chance of losing.
wouldnt they have to sue wpe? (Score:2)
Re: wouldnt they have to sue wpe? (Score:2)
not a nuclear war (Score:2)
I wish the press would stop using the phrase "nuclear war" to refer to things that aren't nuclear war.|
This is a minor turf battle between rival gangs. No cities being bombed.
Re: (Score:1)
I wish the press would stop using the phrase "nuclear war" to refer to things that aren't nuclear war.|
This is a minor turf battle between rival gangs. No cities being bombed.
They're trying to soften us up so that when actual nuclear war happens we just shrug it off as another day, until the bomb hits our city. No need for the riots to start over the complete failure of leadership it would take to start a nuclear exchange before we're all dead anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Websites are being exposed to security vulnerabilities due to an egomaniac narcissists's business aspirations. Which was a plan to create duress in order to acquire outsizes payment from WPE.
One thing is sure (Score:3)
A friend of mine has done freelance Wordpress dev for folks for decades. He's been steadily migrating a lot of his clients to other platforms - the more clued in ones are afraid they'll have to move abruptly because of some legal issue, so they're doing so now, and it is good business for him - you go where the customers want to be.
My employer used to host a corporate blog on WPEngine. We just moved that in-house (I'm not sure what they're using now, but the tickets I saw explicitly referenced "moving away from Wordpress.")
Maybe he's be OK with being king of a much smaller hill, but if my income were tied to that brick, I would be taking urgent measures, too.