According to several Blogs I’ve read tonight — Sherman Hu was given a Cease and Desist letter from WordPress for his Video Tutorial Site “WordPressTutorials.com”, claiming Sherman to be somewhat of a scammer since he’s using Affiliate Marketing.

Interesting point of view I suppose? Since when does Affiliate Marketing make you a scammer?

Now I understand and respect most Open Source Developers and usually agree with their opinions on Commercial Products, licenses, etc. but this one is just nonsense, in my opinion.

If these guys truly believe Affiliate Marketing is a bad thing then I suppose any Sales Person is evil?

To be quite honest: If it weren’t for “Affiliate Marketing” — there would be no WordPress, how we know it. Maybe those who spread the word don’t get paid for the tasks but they’re still usually affiliated with the Product in some fashion and they ARE Marketing the product. Why? Because they believe in it.

Now if Sherman Hu believes in WordPress and his knowledge on the Product enough to create his own Product for others to LEARN WordPress — how is this a bad thing? Correct me if I’m wrong but there’s VERY LITTLE Documentation for WordPress and there ARE books to purchase, correct?

So why would you push a positive thing into a negative corner? All Mr. Hu is doing for WordPress is creating a higher demand for the product. By creating more Advanced Users of WordPress with his products — Mr. Hu has created a more advanced Community in general… right? Of course! Let’s be real here — without Documentation there will always be someone there to capitalize on this MISTAKE. Yes, MISTAKE.

If you’re creating a Product for the masses - why wouldn’t there be more Documentation? No time? Nobody to write it for you? So I guess it’s easier to Flex the old Trademark Muscles and bust out the legal team than to hire someone to create GOOD Documentation for the Product?

Maybe I’m getting a little off here but the entire situation confuses me and I believe someone is on a major power trip right now. I love WordPress but I’m not sure why this issue (Trademark) needs to be pushed this way. Now if someone was creating some Junk Videos - I could totally see it but the way they’re doing it now just seems so petty.

I hate cheesy Marketers as much as the next guy but I’ve only heard great things about Mr. Hu’s product and I don’t understand why it’s come down to this?