thecoinrepublic.com
- Craig Wright, a self-described Satoshi Nakamoto and proponent of Bitcoin SV has won a legal battle against bitcoin.org for hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper, citing copyright infringement
- Cobra opted not to defend himself, Wright won by default
- In April, Wright was granted permission to serve Cobra by email outside of the United Kingdom, with Cobra having 22 days from April 26 to respond
Craig Wright, a self-described Satoshi Nakamoto and proponent of Bitcoin SV have won a court fight alleging copyright infringement by bitcoin.org for hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper. After the website’s pseudonymous owner, “Cobra,” opted not to defend himself, Wright won by default. Bitcoin.org must immediately delete the whitepaper and post a notice referencing the verdict, as well as pay at least 35,000 GBP ($48,600) in legal fees to Wright.
On Twitter, Cobra reacted to the decision: All of their fiat assets are eventually protected by the same legal system that today made it unlawful for him to host the Bitcoin whitepaper because a well-known liar claimed to be Satoshi before a judge. A system in which ‘justice’ is determined by who has the largest pocketbook. Cobra has also added: They don’t think there’s a greater example of why Bitcoin is required than what happened today. Cryptographic rules are vastly preferable to regulations based on who can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in court.
Wright’s legal team, Onter LLP, hailed the win as a significant step forward in Dr. Wright’s fight for court vindication of his copyright in his White Paper. Dr. Wright does not want his White Paper to be restricted in any way Simon Cohen, a senior associate at Onter, stated that developers of alternative assets, such as Bitcoin Core, should use it to promote or otherwise portray such assets as Bitcoin because they do not support or align with the vision for Bitcoin that he outlined in his White Paper. Wright sent letters to bitcoin.org, bitcoin.com, and bitcoincore.org in January, requesting that they delete copies of the Bitcoin whitepaper from their websites and claiming that they were infringing on his intellectual property.
Wright was granted authority to serve Cobra via email outside of U.K. jurisdiction in April, with the bitcoin.org operator having 22 days from April 26 to reply. Cobra tweeted last month that they had missed the deadline. Cobra responded to rumors that they had missed the deadline to retain their secrecy by saying, No. Because arguing against nonsense is a waste of time, he didn’t turn up.
In his intellectual property infringement action against Twitter user Cobra over bitcoin.org’s hosting of the Satoshi Nakamoto White Paper, Dr. Craig Wright was given a default judgment. As a result, the English High Court granted Dr. Wright’s request that Cobra no longer be allowed to make the White Paper available for download in the United Kingdom (whether through bitcoin.org or otherwise) and that a statement acknowledging the judgment be published and hosted on the bitcoin.org website for at least six months.