From the author [0]:
> I love how I never said I was going to fork the project and only wanted to support those who did. Matt is incredible at only hearing the things he wants to hear.
See the FAQ for more evidence that this is mostly just Vinny trolling so far [1]:
> Well, what does ‘wp’ mean?
> We found some notes referencing “word processing” and “web publishing,” and there’s even a mention of Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William ‘Bunk’ Moreland in the popular HBO series The Wire. It seems to be related to one of those topics.
> It’s also rumored the singsongy vibes really sealed the deal.
FreeWP seems like a completely meritless attempt at a fork / initiative. Potentially even just an attempt by "Vinny" to move himself into the spotlight. And the WordPress community, for a big part, looks still very novice and in-experienced and a decent junk of community members might fall for this and put at least some (and more than they should) eggs into that basket.
Matt just seems to troll and knows that "FreeWP" is no competition at all. And continues on his path of eccentric and very weird behavior.
This is why I think it's a troll—it's so completely devoid of substance that I think it must be deliberately void, and getting Matt to respond was the only point. The OP specifically says they don't intend to fork, and they have a goofy FAQ with an intentionally-absent mission statement.
> The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
This goes with my view that Matt is technically correct almost all the time, which is the best kind of correct. https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/909991-futurama
Thanks to that, I normally find consistency in what he says. The forking post about FreeWP makes sense.
Especially because there is some amount of joking in both freewp.com and the post. I like how Matt refers to him as a former WordPress community member.
In fact, Matt shoots himself in the foot. You don't become a billion dollar company overnight. Zero to thousands. Thousands to hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands to millions. Silence all the way. But billions and it becomes a copyright violation??
That's so ridiculous that only the stupid or the insane would believe it. Or both.
But this isn't about copyright. It's Matt looking for revenue and then manufacturing a flimsy excuse to demand money. Up to recently most of the WP Community drank the MM Kool Aid. That's not the case any more.
Copyright can’t be extinguished by common use. Trademarks can.
- strength/distinctiveness of plaintiff trademark;
- proximity/competitiveness of plaintiff and defendant’s business;
- comparative quality of plaintiff and defendant’s products;
- evidence that the imitative trademark was adopted in bad faith; and
- sophistication of consumers in relevant markets, and evidence of confusion.
Source: https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/trademark-litigation-1...
IDK, some of those read as if you can't wake up one morning and then decide you've been violated.
For example, if WP Engine acted in bad faith, why was it bad faith in 2024, but not prior? It's difficult to argue bad faith when you watched - and enabled? - a company to go from zero to "billions".
If fact, that lens applies to most of this list. These conditions existed all along and MM & Co was silent.
On the other hand look at Apple (Computers) and Apple (Records). Once Apple Computer enter the mmusic market they had to negotiate with Apple Records because Apple Music's change in direction would cause confusion in the market.
Extinguish? Maybe not. But if you don't defend your trademark your argument for violation dilutes more and more as time goes on, true? "Billions" feels like a long time. "Billions" - and how MM went about it - feels very much like a "trademark troll".
Even if he wins the battle. He's lost the war. The community no longer trusts and respects him.
The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.> The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
"Consistently" is not an adverb I would associate with Automattic/WordPress.org/WordPress Foundation/Matt's behavior in recent months.
It’s curious why Matt Mullenweg would be hyping this up when it contains “WP” in the name, like WP Engine. “FreeWP” sounds just as much like something that would cause brand confusion.
Also, the FreeWP announcement post seems like a manifesto to remove Matt from stewardship of WordPress and to start some sort of class action lawsuit. With bits like:
and Is Matt just really trying to promote forking of software? Is he hoping people point and laugh at FreeWP? Does he want the project to get off the ground so he can go after them with trademark claims? It doesn’t make sense to me.