Chapter 10 — Wix and WordPress Go Head to Head
Integrity and open source
WordPress generally has friendly relations with competing tech firms. An exception is Wix. The conflict between Wix and WordPress began in 2016 when Matt Mullenweg called Wix out for using GPL-licensed code in a proprietary app without crediting WordPress or releasing their derivative app under GPL.
“This explicitly contravenes the GPL, which requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on whatever you release publicly built on top of GPL code,” Matt wrote in a blog post. “The GPL is what has allowed WordPress to flourish, and that let us create this code. Your app’s editor is built with stolen code, so your whole app is now in violation of the license.”
Matt called for Wix to release their app under a GPL license, which the rules of GPL licensing require.
Avishai Abrahami, CEO of Wix, responded in an open letter to Matt, saying, “Yes, we did use the WordPress open source library for a minor part of the application (that is the concept of open source right?), and everything we improved there or modified, we submitted back as open source…If you believe that we need to give you credit, that you deserve credit, I must say, absolutely yes. You guys deserve a lot of credit, but not because of a few lines of source code, you deserve credit because you guys have been making the internet dramatically better, and for that we at Wix are big fans. We love what you have been trying to do, and are working very hard to add our own contribution to make the internet better.”
This response stopped short of agreeing to release the app under a GPL license, and Matt responded that he would be willing to go to court to defend the GPL.
The discussion continued in public on Twitter and in blog posts. Commenters came down on both sides regarding the tone of the posts. Most of the conversations online centered on which tech CEO had been the most collegial and which had sounded the snarkiest. Still, some observers continued to point out that Wix had simply broken the rules of GPL and then tried to finesse the question of whether they planned to correct their error.
“Open source is not a swap meet,” commented Cody Hatch at Hacker News, “you can’t violate a license if you voluntarily release some other code to make up for it.”
What’s the GPL?
The GNU General Public License is a free and open source software license. It gives users four freedoms: to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license provides clear permissions and rules for sharing, which protect the work of open source creators.
Any software created with GPL-licensed code must be distributed under a GPL license. This is the rule that Wix broke. That is, there was no problem with Wix using the code. They just weren’t allowed then to sell the product based on it as their own commercial software.
Pearl Cohen wrote at Lexology, a legal resource, that this kind of dispute “thickens the fear that some companies have about using open source.” He continued, “The truth of the matter is that Open Source may be used safely in almost every case as long as the developer is aware of the license terms, controls the use and follows the license provisions. This is no doubt demanding, but not unfeasible.”
At the same time, some observers in the tech world were expressing hope that the case would go to court since it would demonstrate whether GPL licensing could hold up in court or not.
In the end
Wix changed their app’s code in 2017. They removed the GPL-licensed code, which Matt recognized, stopped their participation in open source projects, and created a new version of their app.
To go with the app, they created a new license, “The Enhanced MIT License,” or EMIT. It claims that it is the same as the MIT license, except that work created using EMIT-licensed code cannot be licensed as GPL.
To some, this might not sound like something a lawyer would say, and that would be correct. EMIT was not written up in legal terms and has not been used since Wix leveraged it to make a point about their misstep.
Wix vs. WordPress continues
The controversy resolved once Wix removed the GPL-licensed code from their app. But the bad feelings seem to have lingered on. In 2021, Wix produced an anti-WordPress campaign.
Wix began by sending WordPress influencers Bose headphones. They didn’t show the source of the gifts except on the shipping label. Instead, they enclosed a note with a QR code, signed “Yours, WP.”
“They were actually impersonating WordPress,” Matt said in a podcast at wpmrr.com.
Following the QR code led to a video directed at the influencers. It featured an actor wearing a WordPress logo. “Apparently, Wix is coming out with a campaign trashing me,” the actor said. “I just want you to know that it’s totally fake news, completely bogus. They’re just spreading lies because they’re jealous of our relationship.”
Wix followed this up with public anti-WordPress ads showing a father and son in a therapist’s office. The father represented WordPress, and his son was the therapist’s patient. “The WordPress character was kind of like a drunk absent father character,” said Matt, describing the ads as “tasteless.”
The ads portrayed WordPress software as unreliable and high maintenance but also featured the WordPress-branded character from the video made for the influencers. The hapless patient in the therapy scenario was shown as the victim of an abusive relationship leading to anxiety and mental instability.
Many community members saw this as particularly inappropriate given that the pandemic was at that time leading to record levels of anxiety and depression around the world.
In the podcast and his blog post responding to the negative ad campaign, Matt reminded everyone of the GPL episode. “We have a history,” he said on the podcast. “They stole GPL code, embedded it illegally in a proprietary application, then denied it, lied about it, then rewrote it when it was clear that they were caught.”
Avishai Abrahami responded to Matt’s blog post with an open letter implying that Matt’s response had been overly emotional and personal.
Matt laughed ruefully about the conflicts and said, “It’s like, don’t wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty. The pig likes it.”
By late 2022 Wix had 2.4% of the CMS market, while WordPress had upwards of 40%. The controversy may have allowed Wix to present itself as a serious competitor to WordPress but does not seem to have benefitted them in terms of market share.