So, you want to get sued by a scammer?

[gmaxwell]

Earlier thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5311388.0

Craig Wright is increasing the intensity of his campaign of harassment.

He recently filed a lawsuit against several former and current Bitcoin developers, including myself. In that case he is attempting to steal 111k BTC which clearly doesn't belong to him-- he claims he was "hacked" but that he has erased his computers to be sure there was no malware, not only does the hack appear fake but the coins were never his to begin with. He is demanding developers distribute effectively backdoored copies of Bitcoin node software -- of course, that wouldn't work even if they developers tried because people wouldn't run them. Failing a recovery via backdoor, he is demanding over $6 billion USD in damages.

He also filed a copyright lawsuit against Cobra for bitcoin.org hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper.  Satoshi himself put the whitepaper on Bitcoin.org back at Bitcoin's beginning.  Unfortunately,  Cobra found it to be procedurally impossible to obtain representation and present a formal defense while preserving his pseudonymity.

Cobra's identity is irrelevant to the case-- the case depends purely on Wright's obviously false copyright claims and the fact that even if his claims were legitimate his complaint would be blocked by the fact that the author put the file there himself and took no action for over a decade.  But Wright intends to use Cobra's identity to harm him, so Wright is using the case as a pretext to obtain that identity.  This is an indication of what Wright would do to Satoshi if Satoshi were around.

There is an ongoing litigation in COPA v. Wright (IL-2021-00019) over the same subject matter-- the copyright of the Bitcoin Whitepaper-- where another party Wright threatened has filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgement as to the falsehood of Wright's claims.  Because Cobra was unable to obtain representation while protecting his privacy, Cobra threw himself on the mercy of the court presenting four pages for argument and hoping for a stay of his default judgement pending the result of this actively litigated case.

The court was unwilling or procedurally unable to provide that mercy. The court issued a default judgement in Wright's favor, ordering cobra to remove access to the whitepaper for people in the UK and post a message claiming that the site had violated Wright's copyright.  Given that Cobra is, apparently, not subject to UK jurisdiction the court will presumably have a difficult time enforcing its ruling.

Satoshi Nakamoto authored the Bitcoin Whitepaper with the intention that it be shared widely, and Craig Wright’s takedown notices and litigation are fraudulent, but since he is a litigious jerk who has bankrupted people with his fraudulent legal claims in court, it is sometimes a wise strategic choice to avoid provoking him into suing, which is expensive and disruptive to a defendant even when they ultimately win, or a wise choice to keep him from obtaining your identity.

But you might be in a good position to host this paper that Craig Wright so desperately wants taken down and kept under his exclusive control.  If you are, you probably also would like to host a mirror of some Bitcoin Node source code-- since Wright will come after that next and node software is more important than the whitepaper.  E.g. https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.21.1/bitcoin-0.21.1.tar.gz  or https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd/releases/download/v0.22.0-beta/btcd-source-v0.22.0-beta.tar.gz  or whatever other node software you like.  Wright has also been claiming that some people hosting the white paper are in support of him and his Bitcoin scam-version clone, hosting the code for a node implementation will deny him that excuse.

After hosting it-- You might want to give notice to his attorneys, just to let them know.  Below is an example notice you can send to his attorneys (make sure to fill out the two [ADDRESS] blocks).

Warning: sending this makes you considerably more likely to become the target of a lawsuit by Craig Wright. You should think about whether you are prepared to be in that position before sending this letter.

(This is absolutely, positively, not legal advice, and you are strongly encouraged to consult with your own attorney, especially if you are in the UK.)

To: Simon Cohen <Simon.Cohen@ontier.co.uk>
Cc: Paul Ferguson <paul.ferguson@ontier.co.uk>

Mr. Cohen,

I have recently become aware that the firm of Ontier LLP has been sending notices on behalf of Craig S. Wright to parties hosting “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” (the “Bitcoin Whitepaper”), alleging that Mr. Wright is the rightful copyright holder of the Bitcoin Whitepaper and that further distribution is an infringement of Wright’s exclusive rights.

I believe this to be a fraudulent misrepresentation of both the authorship of the paper and of its licensing status for many reasons, including but not limited to the following subset of points:

    • The Bitcoin Whitepaper was released, along with the initial public version of the software, under the MIT license. This license is a perpetual grant to the general public of the right to “use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies” of the software and associated documentation files (including the Bitcoin Whitepaper) and may not be revoked or rescinded, even by the true author.
    
    • The Bitcoin Whitepaper was authored by a person or entity writing under the name Satoshi Nakamoto, and any exclusive rights under copyright are held by that person or entity (or their assignees). There is no evidence that Wright is that person; in fact, despite challenges in courts of law and mass media journalism, Wright has been either unable to provide proof, unwilling to produce proof, or produced documentary support in the form of forgeries. Any reasonable observer would conclude from this that Wright is unable to claim this connection through legitimate means, and is not Satoshi Nakamoto.

    • Wright has attempted to defraud the courts for his own personal advantage on previous occasions. For one example, he perjured himself in an earlier legal proceeding, which was exposed by the true owners of $200M+ in bitcoins he claimed to own producing unforgeable digital signatures stating that Wright was a fraud. In more recent actions Wright admits to not having a large amount of Bitcoin but instead attempts to force Bitcoin developers to effectively steal Bitcoin for him, were his claims true he would have no need for these supposedly lost coins.  His claims cannot simply be taken at face value, even when made through counsel.

It is therefore my good faith belief that I have valid license to distribute copies of the Bitcoin Whitepaper and that Wright’s claims do not have any bearing on that right. Upon that belief, I am hosting a copy at [ADDRESS] along with the code for a Bitcoin node implementation at [CODE ADDRESS].

I am providing notice to your firm so that any credible claims to the contrary may be addressed in a timely fashion to avoid running out the clock on equitable defenses.

Best,
[NAME]

[Obito]

You said it yourself OP, Satoshi wants everyone to read and access the whitepaper which means that Faketoshi is just digging the grave much deeper of his claim that he is the one true Satoshi by taking down the whitepaper, it contradicts entirely. If I know anything about the law, I would probably host it myself but I don't want to risk it, is there a possibility that you can get sued if you aren't from UK?

[gmaxwell]

If I know anything about the law, I would probably host it myself but I don't want to risk it, is there a possibility that you can get sued if you aren't from UK?

My opinion is this:  If you are a well known person in Bitcoin-- an educator, a developer, a business leader, an advocate-- he will eventually sue you regardless of what you do unless you endorse his scam-- the only way you won't get sued without endorsing him if you're well known is if he's busy suing other people first for long enough that a criminal arrest stops him before he gets to you.  Some of the developers he's already suing haven't been developers for four or more years.

If you are a relatively nobody, he is probably unlikely to sue you regardless of what you do.  However, sending a message like the above might significantly move your position up on the list, and by doing so provide some protection for people in the first group.  You'll also help assure that no matter what he does the whitepaper and Bitcoin node software will remain available and highlight for everyone the futility of his suppression efforts.  Similarly, spreading information about his fraud and encouraging other people to act increases the risk that he'll retaliate.

As Satoshi said:  Bitcoin "takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle."   Information doesn't spread on it's own: it needs everyone's help.

[aoluain]

...and my day was going nicely for me.
CSW really stresses me out, he is one dangerous character and we are unfortunate
to have him linked with Bitcoin.

We have to hand it to him, he has one hell of a legal team if only he would use his resources
and skill at litigation to help people.

I cant understand how he has got so far with this charade, I dont have a website but do have
a Blogger blog page. I wonder if everyone here with a google account hosted the whitepaper
and node software it would be impossible to eliminate those unless he went after Google themselves?

and dont bother notifying his legal team?

[NotATether]

I cant understand how he has got so far with this charade, I dont have a website but do have
a Blogger blog page. I wonder if everyone here with a google account hosted the whitepaper
and node software it would be impossible to eliminate those unless he went after Google themselves?

Blogger/blogspot is not a good place to host the whitepaper from a legal perspective, all CSW's lawyers have to do is send a DMCA notice to Google saying they are his representatives, he owns the copyright to the whitepaper, and order them to take it down. Google's DMCA handing system is semi-automated so it might even take down your whole blog in the process.

[Lorence.xD]

My opinion is this:  If you are a well known person in Bitcoin-- an educator, a developer, a business leader, an advocate-- he will eventually sue you regardless of what you do unless you endorse his scam-- the only way you won't get sued without endorsing him if you're well known is if he's busy suing other people first for long enough that a criminal arrest stops him before he gets to you.  Some of the developers he's already suing haven't been developers for four or more years.

If you are a relatively nobody, he is probably unlikely to sue you regardless of what you do.  However, sending a message like the above might significantly move your position up on the list, and by doing so provide some protection for people in the first group.  You'll also help assure that no matter what he does the whitepaper and Bitcoin node software will remain available and highlight for everyone the futility of his suppression efforts.  Similarly, spreading information about his fraud and encouraging other people to act increases the risk that he'll retaliate.

As Satoshi said:  Bitcoin "takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle."   Information doesn't spread on it's own: it needs everyone's help.

Maybe if everyone in the bitcoin community hosts the whitepaper to their own websites, it's not like he can sue everyone who will do it, this is like the meme event "Storming the Area 51" except that CSW really can't stop us at all and we don't need to run like ninjas in Naruto.

[o_e_l_e_o]

There is an ongoing litigation in COPA v. Wright (IL-2021-00019) over the same subject matter

Do you have any update on how this case is progressing?

Given that Cobra is, apparently, not subject to UK jurisdiction the court will presumably have a difficult time enforcing its ruling.

Has Cobra given any inclination as to whether he will continue to host the bitcoin whitepaper and make it available for users in the UK? What are the next steps for the UK courts if he does not comply? Presumably go to the ISPs and have them block access, meaning it is easily circumvented by Tor or a VPN.


Other than hosting on a website, is it worth looking in to sharing it in other ways? Torrenting? Via Blockstream Satellite? Hell, let's print it out and put it in public libraries.

[dkbit98]

Cobra is now taking a break from twitter after this court decision, and it's unfortunate that many insane individuals like Faketoshi have lots of money that can be used for endless court battles with his law firm Ontier.
It is obvious that he wants to have some global recognition from authorities that would accept him as real Satoshi Nakamoto and his clone coin as real Bitcoin, and this court decision means that United Kingdom official stance is that Craig Wright is Satoshi... so stupid 
Legal system worldwide is obviously fkd up and corrupted.

Just look at this slime Calvin Ayre threats:

this is not over yet Cobbie...far far from over.

https://twitter.com/CalvinAyre/status/1409533473665261573

[NotATether]

It is obvious that he wants to have some global recognition from authorities that would accept him as real Satoshi Nakamoto and his clone coin as real Bitcoin...

Which is a completely dumb thing for him to do as the first thing authorities would do to the real Satoshi would be to extract government taxes from that huge BTC stash sitting around for a decade, under threat of arrest/extradition/etc and also being hounded by the media with anti-bitcoin/crypto criticism (and by extension his BSV scamcoin). I don't see why he thinks this is such a good thing.

[aoluain]

I cant understand how he has got so far with this charade, I dont have a website but do have
a Blogger blog page. I wonder if everyone here with a google account hosted the whitepaper
and node software it would be impossible to eliminate those unless he went after Google themselves?

Blogger/blogspot is not a good place to host the whitepaper from a legal perspective, all CSW's lawyers have to do is send a DMCA notice to Google saying they are his representatives, he owns the copyright to the whitepaper, and order them to take it down. Google's DMCA handing system is semi-automated so it might even take down your whole blog in the process.

What about using an anonymous hosting service. If its cheap im sure a lot of people
would only be too happy to defy CSW's claims and demands.

This service below is "offshore" so im sure and "laws" passed in the U.K or elsewhere
wont matter? I stand to be corrected.

https://abelohost.com/offshore-web-hosting/

All our offshore web hosting solutions are guaranteed with total privacy and data security. Your data is protected with us.

What can you host with us?
Our offshore hosting solutions are meant:

1) for those who wish to host their data outside of their own country;

2) for those who do not want their data or identity shared with third parties;

3) for those who want to express themselves through freedom of speech;

4) for those who want to host adult, gambling, movie websites, etc.

This doesn’t mean that you can engage in illegal activities, which we strictly forbid. This includes, but is not limited to, spam, phishing, and fraud. We’ll immediately close your account and blacklist all your labels. To see the full prohibition list, click here.

[2double0]

You asked, "What would he do to Satoshi if Satoshi were around?"
I ask, "What would have happened if he was Satoshi himself (according to his claims)?" All the participants in the bitcoin ecosystem would have been sued by him just because they use his 'services' without permission. What a beggar this guy is, he is begging us to believe him as an identity he does not relate to, by any means. This must be stopped somewhere or he will destroy everything only to satisfy his ego.

[NotATether]

What about using an anonymous hosting service. If its cheap im sure a lot of people
would only be too happy to defy CSW's claims and demands.

This service below is "offshore" so im sure and "laws" passed in the U.K or elsewhere
wont matter? I stand to be corrected.

https://abelohost.com/offshore-web-hosting/

Yeah that will work, decentralized file sharing solutions like IPFS, Arweave and Skynet are also good options for hosting files for free on the clearnet. This topic of mine has a few copies hosted in those locations: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5346576.0

[Lucius]

This must be stopped somewhere or he will destroy everything only to satisfy his ego.

How are you going to stop a lunatic who obviously has a lot of money, and apparently he doesn't do all this alone - so maybe we should ask ourselves who is actually behind him in a project called "How to privatize and centralize Bitcoin"?

Other than what we got as advice from @gmaxwell, I don't see how we little people can oppose what Faketoshi does - and we all know that he can't possibly be Satoshi even in some parallel universe. These days, some controversial people have ended their lives - maybe luck will smile on us and a black reaper will come for this idiot.

This is not a death threat or anything like that, for all those who support scammers, pedophiles, drug dealers and all other types of human scum.

[aoluain]

Is anyone else planning on hosting the whitepaper and code?

It can be done anonymously through >
https://www.orangewebsite.com with a domain name and availing of a basic hosting package.
They accept crypto payment and dont require personal information.

I thought it would spark more people to make a stand.

What Do We Do?
We are an Iceland-based freedom of speech web hosting provider. Our mission is to provide everyone in the world an equal opportunity to publish their words freely without being harassed or censored. The services we offer are specifically designed for people who are concerned about security and privacy matters.

*I am not affiliated to these in any way.

[cr1776]

What about using an anonymous hosting service. If its cheap im sure a lot of people
would only be too happy to defy CSW's claims and demands.

This service below is "offshore" so im sure and "laws" passed in the U.K or elsewhere
wont matter? I stand to be corrected.

https://abelohost.com/offshore-web-hosting/

Yeah that will work, decentralized file sharing solutions like IPFS, Arweave and Skynet are also good options for hosting files for free on the clearnet. This topic of mine has a few copies hosted in those locations: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5346576.0

There are also things like ZeroNet, file coin, and freenet (among others) that might be useful in hosting copies of the paper and the source.  I would be surprised if there are not copies on there already, but I haven't looked specifically for it.

Presumably one could also post the paper in snippets on Twister and similar platforms. 

[gmaxwell]

I don't see how we little people can oppose what Faketoshi does - and we all know that he can't possibly be Satoshi even in some parallel universe

The best tool we have is mockery.

Among well informed people they look at Wright and see an obvious fraud-- so they turn away: nothing to see here.  But people who don't know better are fooled. Reliably.  They might believe a "lite" version of his scam-- like that he was involved and was exaggerating his involvement, or that he wasn't satoshi but really had 111k BTC that was stolen from him---- and a big part of that is because Wright's paid press activities are substantial, while the opposition is mostly silent and uncoordinated.

We need to all go out and make sure that the whole world knows that wright and his congames are jokes.

[Lucius]

The best tool we have is mockery.
~snip~
We need to all go out and make sure that the whole world knows that wright and his congames are jokes.

Can we even start any kind of resistance on a legal level without any of us revealing our identity? He seems to be winning his battles precisely because most don’t want to openly engage in battle with him, and as the other side, we probably look frivolous in the eyes of the court.

I'm not sure how much mockery can help against some court decisions, because it might look like we're throwing pebbles at him and he's attacking us with heavy artillery. Maybe we should use part of his tactics - there are individuals who can fund publications in all major crypto media, and I think most of those who know what this is about will be very happy to make voluntary contributions to convince the public who CW Faketoshi really is.

Until recently, there was an opinion on the forum from older members that we were giving unnecessary attention to the CW and its actions and that we should ignore it - and then I thought it was the wrong tactic, because ignoring the problem we did not achieve anything good.

[DapanasFruit]

So the saga of Craig Wright really continues and he will never stop until he get everything he wanted...and since he got the money at his arsenals he is getting creative lawyers at his side. This is what money can do...it can harm others in the hands of a stupid and corrupt person. Now, am wondering...will there be a time when members of this forum can be barred from talking about him or the many cases he has lodged in the court? I dread that day.

[fiulpro]

Exactly why Mr. Satoshi never choose to reveal his identity. He is behaving like a kid hungry for attention and at the end of the day when you are not getting any, you have to start up new things go stir things up. I do believe that last time when the government decided to hold him accountable, it was not a good lesson for him therefore he needs a little more pat in the back again.

I don't see how we little people can oppose what Faketoshi does - and we all know that he can't possibly be Satoshi even in some parallel universe

The best tool we have is mockery.

Among well informed people they look at Wright and see an obvious fraud-- so they turn away: nothing to see here.  But people who don't know better are fooled. Reliably.  They might believe a "lite" version of his scam-- like that he was involved and was exaggerating his involvement, or that he wasn't satoshi but really had 111k BTC that was stolen from him---- and a big part of that is because Wright's paid press activities are substantial, while the opposition is mostly silent and uncoordinated.

We need to all go out and make sure that the whole world knows that wright and his congames are jokes.

But that also won't take him long to be back in the game. He will come to harass people again really fast. I do think that people have to reverse complain against him.

[kaggie]

Who are you guys talking about?

Isn't that the guy who said himself that he was a fraud?


Or is it that one guy who is so against crypto that he changed all code to make a centralized version with few servers. (Probably so that he can eventually reverse transactions..?)


Is that the guy that Electrum said BS regarding downloading a file that Gavin Andresen was supposed to have (but didn't according to them on that day), to prove that CSW was Satoshi? https://twitter.com/ElectrumWallet/status/727366861592076288

Isn't that the guy who hired David Kleinman, a year or two after David was dead? [ref needed]

The one who spent several dozen years as the VP of a cyber warfare company: https://archive.is/Q66Gl
The one who was a pastor, so who knows what relgious angle he may have.

https://mylegacykit.medium.com/the-faketoshi-fifteen-times-two-76e8060905b4

--

You need clear, fast, verifiable/referencable, archived facts. The more the better.
A "cheat-sheet" of sorts.