this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 2 points 51 minutes ago

screenshot. notamy: I am stunned that you're still posting publicly and aggressively about all of this. How have your lawyers okayed any of this? photomatt: Yes.

excellent stuff matt

[–] mpk@awful.systems 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Having read a bit about this dispute and the parties involved I think the best settlement prospect for this lawsuit is to set everybody involved on fire.

So if I follow, basically everyone involved has been banking on users getting confused about what the "legit" version of WordPress is, with known transphobic asshole photomatt being particularly egregious with WordPress.com vs wordpress.org, and then known transphobic asshole photomatt remembered that he also had some more direct influence in WordPress.org that he could use to smite his enemies. Is that about right or am I missing some steps?

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago

Waste of a perfectly good fire.

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 28 points 1 day ago

Beware of using javascript to display customer satisfaction. This is how WPEngine looks without javascript enabled.

[–] dashdsrdash@awful.systems 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

I suspect that he is incapable of admitting to himself that he is in a hole, much less that he dug it himself.

on the contrary, 99% of the people who find themselves in a hole stop digging right before they fix the situation

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

This guy has a serious case of Sam Bankman-Fried-levels of self-implicating logo-diarrhea. He seems massively invested in being seen as virtuous and winning in the court of public opinion. As someone with ASD, I can understand the impulse when you feel you're being wronged and I've certainly sometimes put my foot in my mouth out of frustrated interactions, but my god, I don't own a million dollar company and teams of PR people and lawyers to cover for me.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Matt sentenced to 25 years somewhere he can quietly sit and rest with his Leica collection

[–] fasterandworse@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago

Blog post: Day 1 of my 25 year sabbatical

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Matt is gonna shoot his mouth off so hard he gets wordpress.org's 501(c)3 status pulled

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you modify a trademarked product and sell/distribute it, you can't use the trademarked name to describe it unless you get permission to do so.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

unsurprisingly, it turns out to be vastly more complicated than that

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de -5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Unless you refer to something other than violation of a trademark, I'm curious to know how it's more complicated than that?

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

WP was explicitly not a trademarked term

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de -5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I haven't stumpled upon anything that complained about the use of the letters WP.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What do you think the trademark claim against WPEngine is exactly?

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago

New blog smell, most likely

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)
[–] kgMadee2@mathstodon.xyz 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

@smpl @db0 yeah, which has 0 legs to stand on. Hence the question about nominative use ...

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de -3 points 1 day ago

There does seem to be confusion among WPEngine customers from exhibit document. Whether they are in violation of the trademark or not is up to a judge to decide on. WPEngine have recently been doing a lot of changes on their website to clarify that they are not Wordpress. That does not automatically make them in violation, but it indicates that there were areas where they could have been more clear in their communication to customers.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

explain to me your understanding of nominative use, for a start

(or, preferably, don't)

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de -4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That would be if WPEngine sold hosting of an unmodified Wordpress codebase.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

what... what exactly do you think people like dreamhost and bluehost and such do? in your mind, do they have special dreampress and bluepress "vendored" versions of wordpress?

good lord

[–] smpl@discuss.tchncs.de -4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm only talking about trademark law. I'm not arguing what's morally right or wrong, that's a subjective perspective. I'm not able to tell if Dreamhost and Bluehost are violating the trademark, but from what I know they are generic webhosting companies and not as easily confused with Wordpress. In my personal opinion having had a quick look at Dreamhosts page about hosting Wordpress. It seems quite obvious that they only host the Wordpress software, with prominent phrases like "optimized for WordPress" and "Recommended by WordPress.org".

[–] self@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

photomatt? get the fuck off my instance photomatt

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 5 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

wouldn't that just be funny as fuck

[–] self@awful.systems 5 points 22 hours ago

the only way to know for sure is to do a Photography Matthew photo critique thread and see if I get a nasty letter

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

i'm not saying he's been sockpuppeting on the orange site, i'm just asking

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 2 points 14 hours ago

user: metamichael created: 23 hours ago

lul

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

you're on matt's legal team right