[austhrow743]

This is accurate if by landlord you mean "the person in whose house you have been squatting without paying rent or signing a lease."

[immibis]

Actually, it's the person who signed a contract with me to give me a free house.

[austhrow743]

What is the contract that gives WP Engine the free house?

[ceejayoz]

The GPL, and WordPress's trademark policy, which up to a week ago stated " The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it in any way you see fit."

[commoner]

On the other hand, the use of WordPress servers is in no way covered by the GPL. WP Engine can pay for their own servers the same way Bluehost used to.

[austhrow743]

That someone gives you the right to use their code doesn't mean they're required to be a free hosting provider for you.

[ceejayoz]

Using the resources of the non-profit you control to kneecap a competitor to the for-profit you control makes that a bit more complicated.

I think it's obvious WPE wouldn't be in the clear with Matt even if they went and hosted a mirror/cache of the WP.org packages.

[phonon]

wp.org is not a non-profit, despite the name. The actual non-profit [1] had expenses of $41k in 2022, which wouldn't come anywhere near paying for wordpress.org infrastructure and personnel. I guess Wordpress is going the RHEL route. You can clone it, but can't use their trademarks or infrastructure.

[1] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/205...

[fastball]

WordPress definitely did not sign a contract with WPE to provide free electricity.

[recursive]

Not a lawyer, but I think contracts require consideration to be enforceable.