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Secure Custom Fields by WordPress.org

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172 points ValentineC | 6 comments | 12 Oct 24 18:38 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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CharlesW ◴[12 Oct 24 19:27 UTC] No.41821726[source]▶
So WordPress-the-org — which is effectively Matt, as far as I can tell — just Sherlocked a developer's plug-in using the developer's own code, ostensibly as retribution for a security issue that the developer had already fixed. https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-6-3-8-security...

What am I missing?

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sureIy ◴[12 Oct 24 19:44 UTC] No.41821872[source]▶
> Sherlocked

The verb you're looking for is stole

Sherloking is when a Walmart is built next to a cornershop. Here the dude tore open the corner shop while claiming to be a victim.

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CharlesW ◴[12 Oct 24 19:56 UTC] No.41821973[source]▶
When I posted, I was under the impression that ACF was open source. But the GitHub repo doesn’t list one, so if it’s not open source…WTF.
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ValentineC ◴[12 Oct 24 20:02 UTC] No.41822031[source]▶
> When I posted, I was under the impression that ACF was open source. But the GitHub repo doesn’t list one, so if it’s not open source…WTF.

Isn't it here?

https://github.com/AdvancedCustomFields/acf

If you mean the licence, it's in readme.txt:

https://github.com/AdvancedCustomFields/acf/blob/master/read...

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forrestthewoods ◴[12 Oct 24 20:10 UTC] No.41822095{3}[source]▶
Clearly AdvancedCustomFields should have filed a trademark to prohibit Wordpress from fully stealing it.

GPL code, trademarked branding. If you want to fork then you have to actually fork.

Oh the irony.

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1. ValentineC ◴[12 Oct 24 20:17 UTC] No.41822159{4}[source]▶
> Clearly AdvancedCustomFields should have filed a trademark to prohibit Wordpress from fully stealing it.

They did:

Advanced Custom Fields — https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=98321164&caseSearchType=U...

ACF — https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=98321135&caseSearchType=U...

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2. forrestthewoods ◴[12 Oct 24 23:20 UTC] No.41823617[source]▶
Oh nice. Then WordPress shouldn’t be able to take over without renaming, right?
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3. prettymuchnoone ◴[13 Oct 24 05:56 UTC] No.41825544[source]▶
they renamed to "secure custom fields"
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4. everforward ◴[13 Oct 24 19:48 UTC] No.41830955{3}[source]▶
They kept the permalink afaik, which is probably still likely to cause confusion in the marketplace and may still be a trademark issue.

Without knowing this drama, if I found and clicked an ACF link on a 2 year old Reddit post and ended up at Secure Custom Fields, I’m not sure I’d know it wasn’t by the ACF folks. Just their branding for the v2 or whatever. I think customers have a reasonable expectation that permalinks won’t take them to unrelated products.

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5. mthoms ◴[13 Oct 24 20:59 UTC] No.41831541{4}[source]▶
Yep. And the string 'acf' is used throughout the plugin and the plugin download page (in reviews, etc). And 'acf' is indeed a pending trademark registration.

Not good.

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6. saaaaaam ◴[18 Oct 24 22:07 UTC] No.41883933{5}[source]▶
Very much doubt they will be able to trademark “acf”.