The conflict between WordPress and WP Engine is taking a new turn. WordPress forked WP Engine’s ACF plugin without permission from the creators.

The feud between WordPress and WP Engine continues. The conflict arose because Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, believes that the WP Engine should pay royalties for using WordPress. WP Engine refused to pay, which resulted in them being denied access to WordPress resources for automatic updates. WP Engine has taken legal action, to which WordPress is now responding with a new stunt.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg announced in a blog post that the company has converted Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) into a new plugin it calls Secure Custom Fields. The makers of ACF, in turn, inform us of this via

Plugin “forked”

WordPress has converted the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin into a new Secure Custom Fields plugin, Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, said in a blog post. AFC is a plugin that allows users to create custom fields while editing pages, such as: B. Images or social media embeds. Mullenweg says it has robbed Secure Custom Fields of its commercial nature.

According to Mullenweg, WordPress has the right to change a plugin “without the developer’s permission.” In his blog post he refers to Section 18 of the Plugin Guidelines.

However, the developers of AFC think differently. In a post on the developers now recommend users download the plugin from the ACF website as they no longer have control over the version users previously installed.

Finally, in his blog post, Mullenweg also speaks of a security bug that has supposedly been fixed, although he does not clarify what exactly the bug is.