Moderator
Jan Dembowski
(@jdembowski)
Forum Moderator and Brute Squad
Who “owns” WordPress.org?
No one for your purposes.
Does anyone know if there is a company that “owns” the open source software provided by wordpress.org?
There is no such company though the WordPress Foundation is the trademark holder.
https://wordpressfoundation.org/
However I’m attempting to create an app on Shopify, and because my app “connects” to a WordPress site, they’re claiming I need to have a representative of WordPress.org “sign” an agreement form before my app is accepted.
They are wrong too. 😉 Completely wrong.
A WordPress installation uses open APIs.
https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/
Them or anyone asking to “have a representative of WordPress.org “sign” an agreement form” is incorrect and will not happen. It would be like you writing an app to connect to websites and them asking for a representative of Apache, nginx, lighttpd, etc. to sign an agreement to use the http protocol.
That’s just not the case.
To me, this seems like a misunderstanding from Shopify regarding open source and how WordPress.org actually works.
Exactly. WordPress.org only distributes the opensource code and hosts the code only. There’s no entity to sign any agreement.
*Drinks coffee*
WordPress.COM may be different but if you are targeting generic WordPress installations then Shopify or who ever you are interacting with may just need some education.
Hi Andrew,
The representative from Shopify may be mixing up WordPress.ORG, which is indeed open source, and WordPress.COM, which is owned by the company, Automattic. They have very similar names, but one is community-based and the other is run by the company Automattic.
This guide may help clear it up for you:
WordPress vs WordPress.com
If your website is hosted using WordPress open-source software somewhere other than over WordPress.com, you are correct: there is no “owner” for the software. I hope that answers your question!
Actually … you’d want to hit up https://wordpressfoundation.org/
They own the trademark and can authorize.
Now that said … I think Jan’s right in that you’re saying something that weirdly confused them. Which is extra weird since they have this – https://www.shopify.com/buy-button/wordpress so it’s not like they don’t know.
