{"id":40640,"date":"2021-04-13T11:44:03","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T08:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=40640"},"modified":"2025-08-30T15:04:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:04:51","slug":"copa-sues-craig-wright-over-bitcoin-white-paper-copyright-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/copa-sues-craig-wright-over-bitcoin-white-paper-copyright-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"COPA sues Craig Wright over Bitcoin white paper copyright claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has filed a lawsuit against the self-proclaimed creator of the first cryptocurrency, Craig Wright. The action follows his claims of copyright over the Bitcoin White Paper and a demand to remove the document from public sources.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">Today, COPA initiated a lawsuit asking the UK High Court to declare that Mr. Craig Wright does not have copyright ownership over the Bitcoin White Paper. We stand in support of the Bitcoin developer community and the many others who\\&#8217;ve been threatened for hosting the White Paper. <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/QNDEq3H6Oq\\\">pic.twitter.com\/QNDEq3H6Oq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 COPA (@opencryptoorg) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/opencryptoorg\/status\/1381642092624015360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">April 12, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>COPA has filed the suit in the High Court of London. The alliance sought a declaration that the defendant is not the author and does not hold the corresponding rights to the Bitcoin White Paper.<\/p>\n<p>The claimant also sought to prohibit Wright from asserting involvement in writing the document, claiming copyright, or taking any actions implying that such statements are true.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p><em>\u201cWe support the Bitcoin developer community and many others who have been threatened for hosting the white paper,\u201d COPA said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The organization<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/square-forms-patent-alliance-for-cryptocurrency-firms\"> was founded<\/a> in September 2020 to broaden access for cryptocurrency companies to technology through a shared library of patents.<\/p>\n<p>Among the participants are Jack Dorsey\u2019s payments company Square. On 15 March 2021, the cryptocurrency exchanges OKCoin and Kraken joined COPA, along with the analytics software provider MicroStrategy and Chaincode Labs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">COPA wants a world where people can use cryptocurrency without being afraid of patents or legal threats. We are so grateful for your support. We\\&#8217;re excited to announce <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OKCoin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@OKCoin<\/a>, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/krakenfx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@krakenfx<\/a>, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChaincodeLabs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@ChaincodeLabs<\/a>, and <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MicroStrategy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@MicroStrategy<\/a> as new members. Join us at <a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/MXctA8fTge\\\">https:\/\/t.co\/MXctA8fTge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 COPA (@opencryptoorg) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/opencryptoorg\/status\/1371555019657416706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">March 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Wright registered copyright for the Bitcoin White Paper and the original Bitcoin code. Later, the United States Copyright Office clarified that it did not recognise him as the creator of the digital gold Satoshi Nakamoto.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2021, Wright accused Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org of copyright infringement and demanded<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-org-refused-to-remove-the-bitcoin-white-paper-at-craig-wrights-request\"> that the white paper be removed<\/a>. Lawyers from Ontier sent a similar letter to Square, on whose site <a href=\\\"https:\/\/squarecrypto.org\/bitcoin.pdf\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\\\"> \u0440\u0430\u0437\u043c\u0435\u0449\u0435\u043d\u0430<\/a> copy of the document.<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin.org\u2019s owner Cobra declined to comply with the demand. On 1 February, he<a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CobraBitcoin\/status\/1356024146413629440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1356024146413629440%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforklog.com%2Fsquare-potrebovala-ot-krejga-rajta-dokazatelstv-avtorstva-white-paper-bitkoina%2F\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noreferrer noopener\\\"> said<\/a> he had received death threats from someone allegedly linked to the Bitcoin SV community.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Balaji Srinivasan, the former Coinbase CTO, proposed that government websites in various countries host the Bitcoin White Paper in response to Wright\u2019s assertions. Estonia and Colombia <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/estonia-and-colombia-post-the-bitcoin-white-paper-on-government-websites\"> backed<\/a> the call.<\/p>\n<p>In February, COPA<a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/square-demanded-that-craig-wright-provide-evidence-of-authorship-of-the-bitcoin-white-paper\"> demanded<\/a> that the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin explain on what grounds he asserts copyright on the white paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) has filed a lawsuit against the self-proclaimed creator of the first cryptocurrency Craig Wright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1162,375,1566],"class_list":["post-40640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-court-cases","tag-craig-wright","tag-whitepaper"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"22","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40642,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40640\/revisions\/40642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}