Since 2012, when I started coding and learning about computer science through the online version of CS50, I became aware of the possibility of building websites using a magical CMS called Wordpress.
It was indeed very magic and still is during these days.
It enabled me to get a template, edit it a little bit and grasp the inner possibilities of what a CMS could do to improve my blogging capabilities (almost none).
Recently, Automattic engaged on a legal battle against WP Engine (and Silver Lake, the Private Equity firm that has the majority stake in WP Engine) for a licensing deal covering the usage of Wordpress resources inside WP Engine. (Read the article: Why WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg has gone ‘nuclear’ against tech investing giant Silver Lake)
There is only a minor GIGANTIC issue in this battle, Wordpress is released under GNU Public License v2 (aka GPLv2 for the intimates) which means that the code must be distributed and made available to anyone.
Inside the license's text we have the following disclosure:
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.
I still don't know how this battle between giants is going to end, but I do know that we need to be prepared for the worst.
We need better open source alternatives for deploying CMSs in a simple and easy way, with similar resources (given the limits of the development of the software).
The alternatives must be reliable and must give us total access of the code just as Wordpress do under the GPLv2 and also have a community built around it to advocate for it's further development and enrichment.
One of the alternatives I'm currently studying is Plone: a Python-built CMS that has been around since 2000s and is serving multiple websites (including many Brazilian government agencies, as far as I know).
It's amazing how much you can build with Plone and I hope it's community can lead us to places as far as the Wordpress community brought us.
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