Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, is not happy with the editor used in the Wix mobile app, saying the web building service copied his platform. Wix.com's CEO Avishai Abrahami responds to Mullenweg's accusations.
Mullenweg said in his blog that Wix's mobile app seems familiar to him, it's like he had used it before. He said he has because it's WordPress.
"If I were being honest, I'd say that Wix copied WordPress without attribution, credit, or following the license," he said. "Wix has always borrowed liberally from WordPress - including their company name, which used to be Wixpress Ltd. - but this blatant rip-off and code theft is beyond anything I've seen before from a competitor."
Mullenweg then used his blog post and wrote a letter to Wix saying that their app's editor is built with stolen code. He adds that the web building service's whole app is a violation of the license.
He said the GPL WordPress use is what allowed the company to flourish and create the code. He also said the use of GPL requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on what the Wix releases publicly built on top of the GPL code.
Abrahami responded to Mullenweg's accusations in a blog post of his own, saying that they only used the WordPress open source library for a minor part of their application. He adds that everything they improved upon or modified was submitted back as open source.
"Now, what is this thing about us stealing your branding?" Abrahami said. Our product was always called Wix and our website Wix.com, we never borrowed from your marketing or brand.
Abrahami adds that it was actually WordPress who changed their business model to exactly the one that Wix had for years. He also said that it could be that WordPress was borrowing from them, but they are welcome to it.
He did say that WordPress does deserve a lot of credit, but not because of a few lines of source code. WordPress deserves a lot of credit for making the internet dramatically better.
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