Australian Craig Wright won a victory in court against the co-owner of the site bitcoin.org, known under the pseudonym Cobra. The case concerned “copyright infringement” in the publication of the Bitcoin White Paper.
In January, the self-proclaimed “creator of Bitcoin” Craig Wright sent a warning to the anonymous administrator of the bitcoin.org website, accusing him of illegally publishing a White Paper and using a domain name with the word bitcoin. However, Cobra refused to remove this information because it is published under the open and free software license developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In April, a London court allowed Wright to file a lawsuit against Cobra. Earlier, the publisher bitcoin.org announced its readiness to reveal its identity to protect the White Paper of Bitcoin. But later he still refused to defend himself in order to maintain his anonymity, so the High Court of London granted Wright’s claim. Thus, this court set a precedent for virtually unproven recognition of Craig Wright as the creator of Bitcoin. The decision was made not because of Wright’s provision of evidence, but only because of the defendant’s failure to appear.
In a remote court hearing, the judge ordered the operator bitcoin.org to post a notice of the court’s decision on its website and pay Wright his legal costs, which amounted to £ 35,000 (about $ 48,600). In addition, Cobra is required to remove the Bitcoin White Paper from the site so that UK citizens cannot download it or otherwise access it on the site. This was the first legal victory for Wright, who has been trying to prove his copyright for the creation of Bitcoin for a long time.
“I would be happy to pay Craig his legal fees in the Bitcoin White Paper case. What if I send him the payment in BTC to the address associated with block number 9? ” – Cobra tweeted, hinting that Wright is not the owner of the early Bitcoin addresses.
Wright’s lawyer for Ontier law firm (Simon Cohen) said that his client did not want to restrict access to “his” White Paper. Wright only disagrees with the use of this document by proponents and developers of alternative cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Core, as they “distort the concept of Bitcoin.” After information about Wright’s victory in court appeared, the BSV cryptocurrency, which Wright supports, rose 23% to $ 155.
