Bitcoin ‘inventor’ wins copyright case
The operator of Bitcoin.org, Cobra, has lost a copyright battle after the English High Court ruled that it must stop sharing a whitepaper that outlines the founding technology behind the cryptocurrency.
The court imposed an injunction against Cobra on Monday, June 28, handing a victory to Craig Wright who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin.
The Australian computer scientist sued Cobra in February, holding that it was infringing his copyright by making available a copy of the whitepaper published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
According to Wright, the site hosts and publishes a copy of the academic report “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, without the appropriate authorisation.
Mystery identity
This development comes as the identity of the creative force behind the blockbuster digital currency remains mired in mystery. Over the past five years, several candidates have been mooted as the probable inventor behind the guise of Nakamoto and in 2015, tech website Wired named Craig as the likely inventor. But this claim has been subject to scrutiny after Craig failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that he was the brains behind Bitcoin.
But Wright proceeded to insist that he was not a fraud and registered copyrights in the US for the whitepaper and the code underpinning the currency.
In January, Wright instructed law firm Ontier to send the notices to Bitcoin.org, BitcoinCore.org, and Bitcoin.com demanding the removal of the whitepaper from the sites.
While BitcoinCore complied with the order, Bitcoin.org operator Cobra remained defiant and issued a statement disputing Wright’s claims.
“The Bitcoin whitepaper was included in the original Bitcoin project files with the project clearly published under the MIT license by Satoshi Nakamoto,” said Cobra.
“We believe there is no doubt we have the legal right to host the Bitcoin whitepaper. Furthermore, Satoshi Nakamoto has a known PGP public key, therefore it is cryptographically possible for someone to verify themselves to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Unfortunately, Craig has been unable to do this.”
An inquiry into copyright breaches
The site operator insisted that it would continue hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper and refused to be “silenced or intimidated”. It also urged other site operators hosting the whitepaper “to follow our lead in resisting these false allegations”.
In April, Ontier confirmed that the High Court had allowed it to bring legal copyright infringement proceedings against Cobra on behalf of Wright.
After Cobra failed to submit a defence to the proceedings within the allotted time period, Ontier asked the High Court to impose a default judgment, which Judge David Hodge QC delivered this week.
According to a report by TorrentFreak, he also ordered Cobra to publish a copy of the High Court’s order on Bitcoin.org for six months and to pay Wright’s costs of around £35,000. The site will also be subject to an inquiry to determine the level of damages incurred by the copyright breach.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
Today’s top stories
USPTO reveals post-Arthrex review process
