this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
498 points (97.5% liked)
Technology
58480 readers
3962 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That is incorrect. Automattic donates some work to the open-source project, but they are in no way the same thing.
Man this is like saying proton isn't made by Valve... Matt Mullenweg was one of the cocreators of Wordpress and went on to start Automattic which is a pun on his name. He's literally got (or at least had) the title of lead developer in the Worldpress Foundation and he's CEO of Automattic.
I didn't say it's not "made by", they clearly contribute plenty, just like many others. The issue is that a non-profit entity should not be used as an advertising platform giving preferential treatment to a single for-profit business.
The WordPress Foundation clearly states that you can't use the name WordPress in your domain or business name nor use the logo for your business (https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/) yet that is what Automattic does and Automattic or WordPress.com is not the same entity as the WordPress Foundation or WordPress.org. That is illegal and unethical.
If you own a name, you can grant anyone you want permission to use that name. It's not illegal.
Not when you are a non-profit. You cannot run a non-profit in a way that only provides special benefits to a person or group and exclude others.