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WP AND LEGAL STUFF

Making the legal stuff easier

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code for the web image

Code for the people

by Richard Best

Great documentary. It speaks for itself.    

July 15, 2026
comments 0
Automattic, GPL

Other recent posts

The next generation of document automation for WordPress is here

Published by Richard Best

GravityMerge AI What if every repeatable document your business produces could be generated automatically, from a form, in seconds, as an editable Word file? That’s the idea behind GravityMerge...

March 31, 2026
comments 0
Automation, Contract, Contract generation, Document automation, Gravity Forms, GravityMerge, Online business

WPEngine v Automattic, and King Pyrrhus of Epirus

Published by Richard Best

Settlement conference On 9 July, a settlement conference was held in the court hearing the WPEngine v Automattic proceedings (proceedings that are now so well-known that there’s no need...

July 11, 2025
Automattic, WP Engine

The GPL and nulled plugins

Published by Richard Best

When a leading proponent of open source says something about the GPL, people notice When one of the world’s leading proponents of open source software and the GPL makes...

November 3, 2024
GPL

The “not affiliated” checkbox and the GDPR

Published by Richard Best

TL;DR The punchline of this post is that the operator(s) of WordPress.org may, through the “I am not affiliated…” checkbox, be breaching Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and...

October 19, 2024
Automattic, Privacy, WP Engine

The ACF>SCF ‘fork’ and legal risk

Published by Richard Best

What the… Just when the community thought things couldn’t get more disruptive – because they’re already mighty disruptive – they have. Automattic’s CEO has forked (or purported to fork)...

October 13, 2024
Automattic, Brands, Copyright, GPL, Trademarks, WP Engine

Looking at the WordPress ecosystem as feudal in nature

Published by Richard Best

We have no entitlement to WordPress The first thing to get out of the way, before descending into feudalism, is that we have no entitlement to WordPress. Three forces...

October 10, 2024
Automattic, WP Engine

Automattic’s trademarks post vs other ‘WordPress hosting’ providers

Published by Richard Best

Introduction On 3 October 2024, an Associate General Counsel at Automattic published a useful post on “WordPress Trademarks: A Legal Perspective”. The post is useful for a few reasons,...

October 6, 2024
Automattic, Hosting, WP Engine

WP Engine changes use of trademarks on its website

Published by Richard Best

Question from a reader I had decided to end my posts on the Automattic-WP Engine saga but, following changes by WP Engine to its website in response to the...

October 2, 2024
Automattic, WP Engine

See all articles

A Practical Guide to WordPress and the GPL

A Practical Guide to WordPress and the GPL

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Slightly older posts

I am not a US trademark lawyer, but…I can read I am not a US trademark lawyer. I am, however, a...October 1, 2024

Dear WP Engine…A letter, of sorts Dear WP Engine I am a long-time customer. I moved...September 28, 2024

The ‘WordPress’ trademarks and the classes of activity they coverThe WordPress trademarks With all this talk of Automattic, WP Engine, and trademarks, I...September 28, 2024

From cracks in the attack on WP Engine to a roundtableHats off Hats off to Matt. Despite all the heat in the community at...September 28, 2024

The Automattic-WP Engine debacle and clarity of conceptsThe three concepts A member of the WordPress community made a comment to me...September 27, 2024

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