[outsomnia]

Sorry, this is a GPL plugin to stuff already maintained by Automattic?

It's not like users aren't already updating to whatever Automattic want to give them, in the core, if that's the case? Automattic producing the same plugin and delivering it the same as the core doesn't sound like much of change, since users already trusted Automattic for the core either way...

[usea]

If the delivery service that transported my vendor's goods to me, suddenly started substituting their own product instead, I would sue them. I think my vendor would be pissed too, especially if the main difference is that their monetization was torn out.

This behavior would land people in jail in a more serious industry.

[outsomnia]

No... core volunteers who provide work to you for free, which you have been consuming successfully, have now extended the domain of their works to also encompass something on top you previously got from elsewhere.

The plugin you previously used was always completely dependent on the work of the core volunteers; you were always consuming their work and nothing changed about that. It just also already includes the optional plugin now.

Why would anyone end up in jail when everything is GPL2+?

[prettymuchnoone]

Well yes, but it's like going to buy a bottle of Coke and finding out it's now Koke (but actually Pepsi inside)...it's iffy

[outsomnia]

Users of the plugin already have a trust and consumption relationship with Automattic for the core.

It's more like mcdonalds replacing Coke with McCola with your mcdonalds meal - you were already trusting mcdonalds for the food. But even that is a stretch since both are GPL2 and there's no current sign the plugin Automattic provide differs from the WP Engine one.

GPL is on both sides, nothing stops WP Engine doing the same and providing their own flavour of core with their plugin, if that's what people want. Of course that costs more than private equity just using Automattic's core for free.

[dabinat]

I feel like the dodgy part isn’t the forking. Any open source project can be forked at any time by anyone. The dodgy part is them automatically switching existing users to their fork.

To use your McDonald’s analogy, it’s like specifically ordering a Coke and McD’s secretly switching it to a McCoke without you noticing.

[outsomnia]

As I wrote elsewhere, this is no different from a project deciding to incorporate a third party's functionality into the core. Either way whoever provides the plugin, you trust the provider to provide the core, if you now think they are going to do bad things, there is nothing they can do in the plugin that they couldn't do in the core without all this drama.

It seems the "perceptual framing" that is being engineered about this, that Automattic and its leader should be cancelled, is not about technical issues.

[pavlov]

If you were buying Coke at a store owned by Pepsi, it almost seems inevitable.

I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s just the kind of thing that one expects from American corporations.