Buddy, among other things, i'm licensed as an IP/antitrust lawyer, have actually worked on some of the most recent antitrust cases in tech, and am trying to help you understand what the law actually says.

You don't want to know, that's fine.

But to say "i just made it up" is beyond silly. I don't have an urge to make up anything to win internet points. If i did I'd be on reddit :)

I'm not gonna continue this since it's clear you aren't interested in actually learning anything as much as winning an argument. That's not interesting at all, and not what HN is for.

You're 100% allowed to IP ban people individually. There's no law anywhere that says otherwise.

This is even true in a general case. I bet you've been to a cafe with a sign that says "we're allowed to turn away any customer blah blah blah". Well, they are. There's some limitations like protected classes but it's true.

You're not obligated to provide customers with a product if you don't have a contract stating that. This also applies to free services. I have a server, I can ban your IP if I want. Maybe I think you're using too many resources, or maybe I just think you're ugly.

There's absolutely zero anti-trust shenanigans here. Yes, they are a direct competitor HOWEVER - you are not obligated to provide free resources to your competition. I'm guessing we're talking on the order of hundreds of thousands of requests a day, that costs money.

They tried to come to an agreement but WPE seems to be under the impression they should get free server access without spending a dime. Wordpress said no, and here we are.

Lots of claims and assertions here, most of them wrong, with little data or cases.

I'm just going to suggest you stop trying to play lawyer.

"You're 100% allowed to IP ban people individually. There's no law anywhere that says otherwise."

You are not allowed in all cases. There are plenty of laws that, applied, consider it unfair competition. I told you this already, perhaps look it up? When it comes to the government, it can be (in the US) a first amendment violation as well depending on circumstances. See recent supreme court cases.

If you want to know how things legally are, maybe listen to people who actually know what they are? Or do your own research, of course (lol), but if you do that, please bother to law and cases the parts that you think are making your arguments for you so that someone can help correct the parts that you get wrong.

I have no idea why so many people feel a strong urge to argue instead of learn.