- COPA has filed an injunction against Craig Wright to try and stop him claiming copyright over the Bitcoin whitepaper
- COPA has asked that the UK High Court declare he is not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper or its copyright holder
- The filing is in response to Wright’s efforts to get the Bitcoin whitepaper taken down
The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has given Satoshi Nakamoto-pretender Craig Wright a dose of his own medicine and started legal proceedings against him over the Bitcoin whitepaper copyright farrago. COPA, which was launched in September 2020 and includes representatives of a number of cryptocurrency and blockchain entities including Coinbase, Blockstream, and Square, has taken Wright to task over his claims of ownership over the Bitcoin whitepaper and the threats he has made to those hosting the whitepaper.
COPA Seeks High Court Ruling
COPA announced its lawsuit against Wright in a tweet yesterday, stating that the precise purpose is to ask the UK High Court to “declare that Mr. Craig Wright does not have copyright ownership over the Bitcoin White Paper.” Such a ruling, were it to be made, would bring to a swift end any legal challenge Wright tries to make against individuals and organisations in the UK with regard to his ownership of the Bitcoin whitepaper, and would be a huge blow to Wright’s proclaimed prestige.
The filing from COPA comes two months after they issued Wright’s lawyers with nine questions Wright needed to answer if founding member Square was to accede to Wright’s request to remove the Bitcoin whitepaper from its website. Wright seemingly did not respond to these questions, resulting in the legal action COPA has taken.
Opposing Camps Draw Battle Lines
In the filing, COPA asks the court to assert that Wright is “not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper” and “is not the owner of the copyright of the Bitcoin White Paper”, and that any use by COPA of the Bitcoin whitepaper “will not infringe any copyright” owned by Wright. Furthermore, COPA is seeking an injunction against Wright ordering that he be prevented from claiming he is the author/owner of the Bitcoin whitepaper and taking steps to assert this.
Naturally the news of the filing prompted a war of word between the Bitcoin and BSV camps, with both sides immediately sure of victory:
I don’t know what’s more noble than defending the whitepaper that started it all. Really great news.
The Bitcoin community will never surrender to liars who abuse Satoshi’s absence to fraudulently claim credit for his or her work(s).
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) April 12, 2021
Very happy for this. BSV is Bitcoin and this will make law assess for sure.
— BitcoinHoarder (@BHoarder1) April 12, 2021
This COPA filing adds another layer of intrigue to a long running saga that will certainly take months and potentially even years to unravel fully, by which time many in the crypto world will be sick to death of the whole issue.
