Craig Wright wins default judgment, Bitcoin.org must remove Bitcoin white paper

Published at: June 29, 2021

Self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin SV proponent Craig Wright has won a legal battle claiming copyright infringement on the part of Bitcoin.org for hosting the Bitcoin white paper.

Wright won by default after the website’s pseudonymous owner, “Cøbra,” chose not to mount a defense.

Bitcoin.org must now remove the white paper and display a notice referring to the judgment and cough up at least 35,000 British pounds ($48,600) to cover Wright’s legal costs. Cøbra responded to the ruling on Twitter: 

I don't think you could get a better advertisement of *why* Bitcoin is necessary than what happened today.Rules enforced through cryptography are far more superior than rules based on whoever can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in court.

— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) June 28, 2021

Onter LLP, Wright’s legal representation, celebrated the victory as “an important development in Dr Wright’s quest to obtain judicial vindication of his copyright in his White Paper.” 

“Dr Wright does not wish to restrict access to his White Paper,” wrote Onter senior associate, Simon Cohen. “However, he does not agree that it should be used by supporters and developers of alternative assets, such as Bitcoin Core, to promote or otherwise misrepresent those assets as being Bitcoin given that they do not support or align with the vision for Bitcoin as he set out in his White Paper.”

Related: The first days of Bitcoin and Dustin D. Trammell’s emails with Satoshi Nakamoto

In January, Wright issued letters to Bitcoin.org, Bitcoin.com and Bitcoincore.org, demanding they remove copies of the Bitcoin white paper from their websites and asserting they were infringing his intellectual property.

In April, Wright received permission to serve Cøbra outside of United Kingdom jurisdiction by email, with the Bitcoin.org operator having 22 days to respond from April 26.

Last month, Cøbra tweeted that they had missed the deadline. Responding to speculation, they may have missed the deadline to maintain anonymity, Cobra said: “No. I didn’t show up because defending against nonsense is a waste of time.”

Tags
Copyrights
Bitcoin
Regulation
Law
Satoshi Nakamoto
Craig Wright
Related Posts
Craig Wright Won't Need to Pay Hodlnaut $60K Until Appeal Is Over, Says Counsel
Craig Wright, a self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) creator, is apparently not required to pay legal fees for a failed libel suit against the Twitter crypto enthusiast known as Hodlonaut. In an Aug. 14 email to Cointelegraph, Wright’s legal representative argued that he is not obliged to pay legal costs in the defamation suit until the Norwegian Supreme Court considers an appeal. The spokesperson said, “Craig has appealed to the Norwegian Supreme Court. Craig’s Norwegian lawyers say that there is no obligation on Craig to pay the costs until that appeal is dealt with.” The new comments come in response to Hodlonaut …
Bitcoin / Aug. 14, 2020
Craig Wright’s Satoshi Case Goes to Trial July 6
Lawyers representing both sides confirmed to Cointelegraph that they expect the trial to convene on July 6. The case that has been captivating the crypto community for several years now may finally receive a resolution. On May 1, Judge Bloom, who presides over the case, issued a court order for the trial to begin on July 6. More importantly, the lawyers representing both sides confirmed that they are not planning to file any motions that could delay the trial and are eagerly looking to the opportunity to prove their case in court. The war of words between legal teams Dr. …
Bitcoin / May 4, 2020
‘No Message Was Signed’: Craig Wright Refutes Tulip Trust Fabrication
Craig Wright maintains that he alone has access to the ‘Satoshi’ Bitcoin addresses filed in court, despite a message apparently signed by 145 of the addresses calling him “a liar and a fraud”. Wright says anyone that thinks his credibility is now in tatters as a result “doesn’t understand digital signatures at all”. He is being sued by the estate of his alleged former business partner Dave Kleiman, which is seeking a share of billions of dollars of Bitcoin (BTC) the pair may or may not have mined together. As part of the case, Wright filed a list of early …
Regulation / June 4, 2020
Court Calls on Craig Wright’s Wife to Testify in Ongoing Kleiman Case
Judge Bruce Reinhart, who is overseeing the ongoing Kleiman v. Wright case, has requested international assistance in order to call Ramona Watts, Craig Wright’s wife, to the stand. Judge Reinhart sent his request to the Senior Master of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in Strand, London, according to a court filing dated July 22. As per the filing, Judge Reinhart sent the request because he believes that the witnesses being called — three in total — have directly relevant evidence pursuant to the case. Regarding Watts, Reinhart wrote that she is being called in order to produce …
Bitcoin / July 25, 2019
Craig Wright Uses Falsified Docs to Prove Innocence in Kleiman Case: Report
Self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) creator Craig Wright has allegedly provided fabricated court documents to prove a trust deed with his plaintiffs, as seen from documents revealed by trial lawyer Stephen Palley on Twitter on July 3. According to Palley, the self-styled Satoshi Nakamoto has failed to prove his case by presenting court documents that Palley alleges to be fake, as they contain multiple chronological discrepancies. Among the exhibits filed with the District Court for the Florida Southern District on July 3, there is a document submitted as proof of cooperation between Wright and the now-deceased David Kleiman, whose lawyers filed the …
Bitcoin / July 4, 2019