Business Roundup Week Ending December 13

WP Engine Wins Preliminary Injunction

Tuesday, a California district judge issued a sweeping injunction related to WP Engine’s case against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg that alleges “multiple forms of immediate irreparable harm.”
Conditions of the injunction which Automattic (and Mullenweg) must meet within 72 hours:
- Cease blocking WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org resources.
- Stop interfering with WP Engine’s ACF Plugin. (Automattic previously forked and nulled ACF and renamed it SCF.)
- Remove the list of customers from the “WordPress Engine Tracker” website
- Remove the checkbox in WordPress.org’s login flow asking users to confirm they’re not affiliated with WP Engine.
The judge stated that Automattic’s actions could disrupt WP Engine’s business relationships and result in irreparable harm.
Further, WP Engine’s claims of harm were found valid, and Automattic’s argument that WP Engine created its own issues was dismissed.
WP Engine expressed gratitude for the ruling, which enables access to WordPress.org resources for its customers and users.
Automattic stated that the ruling is only preliminary, maintaining that it will prevail at trial after full discovery and review of facts.
Get the details of the latest decision in this case, that is far from over, in this article on The Verge, another excellent take from The Repository, and this summary of the issue on TechCrunch.

A US Federal Appeals Court has rejected TikTok’s attempt to block a US law requiring its sale or ban by early 2025.
The platform’s argument about free speech rights for its 170 million US users failed to convince the court.
The Court cited national security concern related to Chinese ownership.
Parent company ByteDance must now sell TikTok or cease US operations by early 2025.
Meta and other social media companies are positioning to capture TikTok’s market share, but the complex technical infrastructure behind its recommendation engine makes it difficult to replicate.
December 9 it asked the Federal Appeals Court to bar enforcement of the ban until the Supreme Court reviews the case. The request was then challenged by the US Department of Justice.
Complicating matters, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent the ban.
TikTok plans to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Transparency in the era of AI is essential. If you don’t disclose how you use AI tools, it could impact your agency’s integrity.
Although tools like ChatGPT or Canva’s AI generator can significantly enhance efficiency, it’s ethically important to clearly disclose how you use them.
Letting clients or audiences see how AI supports (but doesn’t replace) your creativity reinforces trust and positions you as forward-thinking.
One of my favorite quotes about AI came from a Sujay Pawar Tweet last year: Computers did not replace accountants. But, the accountants who used computers replaced those who did not. Similarly, AI alone will not replace anyone. Instead, the person who uses AI will replace those who do not.
Updating your website or contracts with clear AI-use policies puts you one step ahead of competitors.
Proactively adapting to tech trends while maintaining ethical practices indicates a commitment to innovation and professional integrity. And your clients will appreciate it.
How are you addressing your use of AI in your verbal and written interactions with your clients?
Read this insightful article from Joe Casabonba and learn more reasons why it’s important to be honest about your use of AI.

Apple launches its ChatGPT integration with Siri! If you have an iPhone 15 or better, iOS 18.2 brings ChatGPT to your device. Get the details from Apple’s announcement.
Robotcop – How to enforce robots.txt instructions to stop bots before they reach your site. Find out how.
🎁 The perfect gift for your developer (or yourself). Check out the video. If you love it as much as I do, it’s just $5 on Amazon.