Although the Bitcoin whitepaper has been restored to the Bitcoin.org website, UK users still face access restrictions due to legal issues.
The Bitcoin Whitepaper is back on Bitcoin.org
Hennadii Stepanov, who maintains the Bitcoin.org website, announced the return of the Bitcoin whitepaper by Chia a link to a PDF of the document on the X platform.
Due to legal constraints, Bitcoin.org is forced to restrict access to the Bitcoin whitepaper to users in the UK. Instead, the website displays a meaningful quote from Satoshi Nakamoto.
It is known that the reason the whitepaper was posted again was because Craig Wright failed in his lawsuit to prove he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of the Bitcoin protocol.
In 2021, Craig Wright successfully sued Cobra, the anonymous group that runs the website, for copyright infringement and the website was forced to take down the whitepaper PDF file. Wright won the case because the site's anonymous owner, Cobra, chose not to plead. This resulted in Cobra paying £35,000 ($40,100) in legal fees to Wright. Additionally, in 2019, Wright also filed a Bitcoin whitepaper copyright registration application in the United States.
New Lawsuit and Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund
In 2023, Wright went on to sue 13 Bitcoin Core developers and a group of companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, for copyright infringement related to the Bitcoin whitepaper, file formats, and database rights to the blockchain. Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund has responded , highlighting a trend of abusive lawsuits targeting prominent Bitcoin contributors. According to the Fund, these lawsuits hinder development by being time-consuming, stressful, costly and pose potential legal risks.
However, Wright failed to identify himself as Satoshi Nakamoto and the author of the whitepaper. This makes his copyright claim invalid.
The ruling details a lawsuit brought by COPA – a coalition of major companies aimed at preventing Wright from asserting ownership of Bitcoin's core intellectual property. COPA alleges Wright engaged in an “elaborate conspiracy of forgery and deception” to fabricate evidence for his claim to be Nakamoto.
Craig Wright's £6.7 million ($8.4 million) assets have been frozen after a British court approved a plan to prevent him from avoiding litigation costs.
Currently, the Bitcoin whitepaper is licensed under the MIT source code license, allowing anyone to reuse and modify the code for any purpose.
Follow CoinMoi to update the hottest issues of the crypto market Please!!!
The article Bitcoin Whitepaper Reappears on the Bitcoin.org website appeared first on CoinMoi .
