There’s another lawsuit against Matt Mullenweg and Automattic, this time from a WP Engine customer. It seems to conflate the project code and the servers into a single “WordPress ecosystem”, but that’s not how open source works. The software can be totally free and companion services less free.
Bill Bennett It looks to me like there's little merit in that case. From overseas it feels like US courts can sometimes make crazy decisions about this kind of action so who knows where it will end? If WordPress loses, the wider implications for open source are worrying.
Patrick Rhone Things like this bank on the truth that most lawyers and judges have no idea how this stuff works so if you just explain it incorrectly in your lawsuit and corresponding arguments they'll believe it (and are too often correct).
Jim Rea @manton I look forward to hearing your take on that on the podcast … oh fuck …
Manton Reece @patrickrhone I'm a little skeptical of tech-related class action lawsuits too. Were a large number of people actually wronged, or is there just a lot of money to split with the lawyers?