[2016-02-13] Forbes: Is The Looming Bitcoin 'Hard Fork' Illegal?

[pawel7777]

Is The Looming Bitcoin 'Hard Fork' Illegal?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2016/02/13/is-the-looming-bitcoin-hard-fork-illegal/#8a7d7254b13e

As the Bitcoin community struggles to reach a broad consensus over how to expand the blockchain’s block size, thus allowing Bitcoin to scale, a pro-Bitcoin attorney has sounded an important alarm: any hard fork of Bitcoin may be illegal, and furthermore, exposes the developers of the newer code to substantial liability.

“The creators of the new software face potential liability and criminal sanctions unless they register with the Feds,” according to Daniel Friedberg, a principal at the law firm of Riddell Williams PS in Seattle. Furthermore, “the implementation of a ‘hard fork’ would require exchanges to differentiate between bitcoin and ‘Bitcoin Classic’ or ‘Bitcoin XT’ Bitcoin, as its customers would inherently have rights to either one or the other.”
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[indiemax]

For some reason suggesting the fork may be 'illegal' makes me smile

we're talking about Bitcoin

[pawel7777]

For some reason suggesting the fork may be 'illegal' makes me smile

we're talking about Bitcoin

Yeah, the idea and reasoning is pretty idiotic. There's a discussion about it on the main board if you're interested:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1364783.0

franky1 made a pretty good point:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1364783.msg13886916#msg13886916

[aso118]

This is an interesting view point, although it sounds pretty stupid to me.

The creators of the new software face potential liability and criminal sanctions if they are deemed administrators unless they register with the Feds

Does this mean that Satoshi is going to face a barrage of litigation if at all he decides to reveal his identity? 

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

This is an interesting view point, although it sounds pretty stupid to me.

The creators of the new software face potential liability and criminal sanctions if they are deemed administrators unless they register with the Feds

Does this mean that Satoshi is going to face a barrage of litigation if at all he decides to reveal his identity? 

I seem to remember that some of the code he used may have been protected by copyright in the U.S., which may have been one of the original reasons for the pseudonym.