Yesterday, both Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org were accused of copyright infringement of the Bitcoin whitepaper by lawyers representing Craig Steven Wright. In this letter, they claim that Craig owns the copyright to the paper, the bitcoin name, and ownership of bitcoin.org. They also claim that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin and the original owner of bitcoin.org. Bitcoin.org and Bitcoincore.org were asked to remove the whitepaper. We believe that these claims are unfounded and we refuse to do so.
Unfortunately, without consulting us, the Bitcoin Core developers were quick to remove the Bitcoin whitepaper from the Bitcoin Core developers in response to these allegations of copyright infringement, giving credence to these false claims.
The Bitcoin Core website was modified to remove references to the whitepaper, its local copy of the whitepaper PDF was removed, and with less than 2 hours of public review, the changes were merged. By surrendering in this way, the Bitcoin Core project has lent ammunition to Bitcoin's enemies, is self-censored, and has compromised its integrity. This dedication would certainly be a weapon to make new false claims, such as that the Bitcoin Core developers "know" that CSW is Satoshi Nakamoto and therefore acted as such.
The bitcoin whitepaper was included in the original bitcoin project files, with the project apparently released under the MIT license by Satoshi Nakamoto. We believe that there is no doubt that we have the legal right to host the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Furthermore, Satoshi Nakamoto has a known PGP public key, so it is possible for someone to cryptographically verify that it is Satoshi Nakamoto. Unfortunately Craig couldn't do that.
We will continue to host the bitcoin whitepaper and will not be silent or intimidated. Others hosting the whitepaper should follow our example in protesting these false allegations.