A California district court judge has granted a preliminary injunction to WP Engine. The order asks WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and WordPress.com owner Automattic to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, a WordPress theme and plug-in repository site owned by Mullenweg.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin noted that WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, themes, plugins, and subdomains. It should be restored as it was on September 20, when Mullenweng passed remarks noting that the WP engine was “cancer to WordPress” at an event.
Mullenweg banned WP Engine on September 25 from accessing WordPress.org. After giving grace for a few days, on October 1, that ban became permanent.
This ban also resulted in WP Engine not being able to access and update its popular Advanced custom field (ACF) plug-in. Automattic took control of the plug-in, forked it, and named it Secure Custom Fields (SCF). The court has also ordered Automattic to restore WP Engine’s access and control of ACF on WordPress.org.
What’s more, the order notes that Automattic should also remove the list of customers in the “domains.csv” file linked to customers of WP Engine on the site WordPressenginetracker.com. The company created the site to show how many customers have stopped using WP Engine since the feud against Mullenweg and Automattic started in September.
Another point in the order asked Automattic and Mullenweg to remove the check mark on the WordPress.org login page that asked developers to disclose if they were affiliated with WP Engine “in any way, financially or otherwise.” WordPress.org started including this checkbox on October 8.
The judge has ordered Automattic and Mullenweg to execute these steps within 72 hours.
Automattic said in a statement that it will keep fighting the case against WP Engine.
“Today’s ruling is a preliminary order designed to maintain the status quo. It was made without the benefit of discovery, our motion to dismiss, or the counterclaims we will be filing against WP Engine shortly,” the company said in a statement.
WP Engine said that the court’s order will bring stability to WordPress ecosystem.
“We thank the Court for granting our request for a preliminary injunction. The order will bring back much-needed stability and security to the WordPress ecosystem. WP Engine is focused on serving our partners and customers and working with the community to find ways to ensure a vigorous and thriving WordPress community,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The saga between Automattic-Mullenweg and WP Engine spanning months has raised questions about the open-source nature and stability of the WordPress community. There have also been discussions about what a fair contribution to an open source project is, as Mullenweg had accused WP Engine of not participating enough for the betterment of WordPress as a technology.