Users with British IP addresses have lost the ability to download the official Bitcoin software from Bitcoin.org.
“This software is currently unavailable for download in the United Kingdom. Download links will not work if you are located in the United Kingdom,” the notice on the site says.
An attempt to download the client returns a 404 error. The owner of Bitcoin.org, under the pseudonym Cobra, said he is enforcing the court’s decision.
The whitepaper is in the blockchain and can be retrieved through the software. I’m not allowed to distribute the whitepaper on https://t.co/1dtx7wYjP2, or “in any other way”. We have to follow the law.
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) July 2, 2021
“The Bitcoin white paper is in the blockchain and can be retrieved through the software. I am not allowed to distribute the white paper on bitcoin.org or ‘in any other way’. We must follow the law,” wrote Cobra.
According to him, otherwise the site would be blocked in the United Kingdom, and the people behind Bitcoin.org would face up to two years in prison for visiting the country.
Then the entire site gets blocked in the UK. The people associated with the company behind https://t.co/1dtx7wYjP2 can also be jailed for up to 2 years if they visit the UK. This isn’t fun and games, this is the law.
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) July 2, 2021
“This is not fun and games, this is the law,” he added.
In 2019, the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, claimed copyright over the white paper and the source code of the first cryptocurrency. Later, the U.S. Copyright Office clarified that it did not recognise him as the creator of the digital gold Satoshi Nakamoto.
In January 2021, Wright accused the Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org sites of copyright infringement and demanded delete the white paper. Cobra refused to take that step. Later he said via a tweet about threats of murder by a person linked to the Bitcoin SV community.
With a similar demand, Ontier’s lawyers contacted the payments company Square, on whose site a copy of the document is posted. In February, the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) asked Wright to explain, on what basis he asserts copyright over the white paper.
Later the alliance filed a lawsuit against the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin.
In June, the High Court of London ruled in Wright’s favour and barred Cobra from infringing his copyright in the United Kingdom “both by providing the ability to download the white paper from the Bitcoin.org website, and by any other means.”
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