The long-debated identity of the elusive creator of Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, may finally be resolved in an upcoming trial scheduled for January 2024. Craig Wright, who controversially claims to be Nakamoto, is set to argue his case for copyright protection of the BTC file format under UK law. Three UK judges accepted his appeal, overturning a previous court’s denial.
Earlier this year, on February 8th, 2023, a UK court dismissed Wright’s plea to block the operation of BTC and its forked counterpart, Bitcoin Cash, citing an alleged breach of his intellectual property rights. Wright’s legal action targeted multiple defendants, including developers and entities affiliated with the popular crypto exchange Coinbase.
Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund Weighs In on the Case
In response, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, an organization established by former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey to aid developers facing lawsuits, issued a statement clarifying that the judges’ acceptance of Wright’s appeal only granted him the opportunity to argue for copyright protection. The definitive question of whether the Bitcoin file format should indeed receive such protection remains to be addressed in the upcoming trial.
The trial will not only delve into the copyright protection aspect but may also ascertain whether Wright is, in fact, the true Satoshi Nakamoto. In a previous case held in Oslo, several witnesses presented forensic evidence indicating discrepancies in documents provided by Wright to support his claim as Nakamoto. These discrepancies included fonts that were allegedly unavailable when the documents were supposed to have been created.
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund cautioned that the court’s allowance of Wright’s arguments could set a precedent for potential lawsuits against developers who may unknowingly violate the file format of open-source software, as claimed by others.
In the court filing, the appeal highlights various flaws in the previous judge’s reasoning, asserting that the BTC file format was sufficiently well-defined to warrant copyright protection. Dr. Wright maintains that the work was fixed when the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain was created on January 3rd, 2009.
He also emphasizes that the structure of the Bitcoin File Format can be accurately deduced from the blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain, suggesting that it satisfies the requirement of fixation as per UK law. However, the trial is set to be a significant milestone in the crypto world, not only for the potential outcome regarding copyright protection for Bitcoin but also for the much-debated identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
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