[mthoms]

Look... Pearson could be the Black River Killer, and that still wouldn't make Matt's actions morally justified.

(For clarity, I'm specifically talking about buying the thesis.com domain name, which he couldn't use because Pearson had the trademark).

It's vindictive and wasteful. Period. That's $100,000 ($132,000 in today's dollars) that could have gone to making the WordPress community better, some other charitable cause, or even a nice vacation for Matt and his family.

I'm sorry, but that is not normal or "principled" behaviour and it's not something that should be "encouraged".

[caslon]

Lots of things are wasteful. Punishing a bad actor who is actively infringing upon your legally-enshrined rights is better than buying a sportscar with that money.

[mthoms]

Not actively. This was literally three years later.