Court Awards Craig Wright Default Judgment Over Bitcoin Whitepaper Copyright Infringement

A London high court has granted a default judgment in favor of self-named Bitcoin inventor, Craig Wright, over his copyright infringement lawsuit against the anonymous founder of Bitcoin.org, Cøbra.

Cøbra was charged on February 24, 2021, for publishing a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper on his platform without Wright’s consent.

The pseudonymous owner of the Bitcoin.org that goes by the Twitter handle @CobraBitcoin refused to show up on several occasions to defend itself from the charges levied against it, which prompted the court to take the decision.

The Verdict

The hearing, which took place remotely yesterday due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols, demanded that Cøbra remove the Bitcoin whitepaper from the Bitcoin.org platform based on copyright infringement.

In addition, Cøbra was also mandated to publish a copy of the court order on its website for the next six months.

Furthermore, the court has ordered that an inquiry be set up to determine the extent of the damages caused by Cøbra’s copyright infringement of Wright’s Bitcoin whitepaper, with the defendant required to cover the cost of the proceedings.

Simon Cohen, one of Wright’s lawyers, stated that the plaintiff’s lawsuit against Cøbra was not to stop the public from accessing the Bitcoin whitepaper. The action was taken to stop supporters of other crypto projects from “misrepresenting those assets as being Bitcoin,” Cohen added.

Craig Wright’s Copyright Lawsuit Against Bitcoin.org

Wright allegedly owns the copyright to the Bitcoin whitepaper, which was initially published in October 2008.

As part of efforts to promote the most popular cryptocurrency, the paper has been widely published across several online platforms, including Bitcoin.org and bitcoincore.org, a platform that announces new releases of Bitcoin core software.

However, Wright did not seem to support the unauthorized use of his work on different platforms.

Following his disapproval, in letters dated January 2021, Wright’s lawyers wrote to the founders of Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org, asking both parties to remove the Bitcoin whitepaper from their domains.

The letters forced the publishers of bitcoincore.org to take down the whitepaper from the website.

However, the pseudonymous Cøbra declined the request on grounds that the original Bitcoin project files, which were published under the MIT license by Satoshi Nakamoto, gave Bitcoin.org the legal rights to host the whitepaper.

The verdict could aid Wright’s quest in proving to the world that he is indeed the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, a heavy task that has seen him involved in several court actions in recent times.