U.K. Judge Jeremy Cooke ruled that the file format of Bitcoin is not subject to copyright, dismissing claims by self-proclaimed inventor Craig Wright.
Wright, who has long claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, had sought to argue that he should be able to prevent operations based on his creation.
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Wright’s legal claim aims to prove that the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision blockchain he created from another fork of bitcoin is legitimate, as opposed to other competing versions.
“I do not see any prospect of the law as currently stated and understood in the case law allowing copyright protection of subject matter which is not expressed or fixed anywhere,” Mellor said in a ruling for the High Court of England and Wales.
“It remains the case that no relevant ‘work’ has been identified containing content which defines the structure of the Bitcoin File Format.” However, Mellor added that Wright and the two Wright-associated investment companies making a claim had been given “ample opportunity” to do so.
The judge said that claims concerning copyright to the 2008 white paper and whether Wright is the author would be the subject of later rulings.
JUST IN: 🇬🇧 Self-proclaimed #Bitcoin creator, Craig Wright loses $BTC copyright claim in UK court.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) February 8, 2023
