Craig Wright registers copyright for Bitcoin whitepaper, BSV pumps over 70%

On Tuesday, it was revealed by pro-BSV Billionaire Calvin Arye on Twitter that the ever so controversial Craig Wright or better known by the crypto community as "Faketoshi" has managed to register the copyright to the Bitcoin whitepaper and "Bitcoin".

Following the news of this, BSV price jumped over 70%

Twitter followers also saw a large spike as price grew and news spread throughout the day. It is important to note though that BSV was delisted from several major exchanges and exchange trade activity can be easily manipulated in other obscure exchanges.

Speaking of exchanges, an unknown exchange called FloatSV came out to announce the delisting of Bitcoin from their exchange. Unsure why would they pull out the most liquid crypto in the space, perhaps it was an attempt to appear relevant but nonetheless, their loss.

Price action aside, let's take a look into further details of the copyright. In the Coingeek press release posted by Calvin Ayre,

Wright is now legally establishing that he is Bitcoin’s creator after being dismayed to see his original Bitcoin design bastardized by protocol developer groups – first by Bitcoin Core [BTC] in 2017 and then again by Bitcoin Cash [BCH] developers in 2018. Those non-Satoshi protocol changes were made by developers who disagreed about whether or how the blockchain should massively scale. Importantly, Wright notes that “bitcoin was designed to be a monetary system that works within existing legal frameworks”. This differs from the path other developer groups are trying to follow where they are creating an anonymous system along the lines of E-gold and Liberty Reserve. This enables Bitcoin to interact with the existing global financial system rather than seeking a black-market exchange system.

Wright and nChain are working to restore Bitcoin’s original protocol, ensure that its vision for massive blockchain scaling is fulfilled in the form of Bitcoin SV, and keep BSV designed to work within existing common law frameworks as Bitcoin was created to do. BSV emerged after the world’s first Bitcoin hash war last November to ensure the Satoshi Vision of Bitcoin lives on.

In the future, Wright intends to assign the copyright registrations to Bitcoin Association to hold for the benefit of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bitcoin Association is a global industry organization for Bitcoin businesses. It supports BSV and owns the Bitcoin SV client software.

This obviously stirred up the crypto community as Wright has been trying to claim that he is indeed Satoshi for the longest time. But he was never able to sign a legit message using Satoshi's key, which is really easy for anyone claiming to be Satoshi and holds more credibility than making claims.

It is interesting that no one ever thought of registering a copyright before Wright in all these years, leaving him to seize the opportunity to appear "legit".

However, it's important to note that the registration is merely superficial attempt to claim ownership. As pointed out by Jerry Brito on Twitter, the Copyright Office does not investigate the validity of the claim. They just register anything that comes to them and that there's no way to challenge a registration. Anyone can also register a competing claim if they wanted to.

You know the uproar around this registration is huge when the Copyright Office issues a press release to clarify their position following the news.

As a general rule, when the Copyright Office receives an application for registration, the claimant certifies as to the truth of the statements made in the submitted materials. The Copyright Office does not investigate the truth of any statement made.

A registration represents a claim to an interest in a work protected by copyright law, not a determination of the truth of the claims therein. It is possible for multiple, adverse claims to be registered at the Copyright Office. The Copyright Office does not have an opposition procedure for copyright registrations, such as the procedures available at the Patent and Trademark Office for patents and trademark registrations. Disputes over the claims in a registration may be heard before federal courts, including disputes over authorship of a work. Someone who intentionally includes false information in an application may be subject to penalties.

The examination process is primarily focused on determining whether a deposited work is eligible for protection under the Copyright Act and whether the application satisfies the requirements of registration. The Copyright Office will correspond with the claimant to clear up any obvious inconsistencies. The Copyright Office may similarly correspond with a claimant if a deposited work seems to include portions a well-known work whose author is known.

In a case in which a work is registered under a pseudonym, the Copyright Office does not investigate whether there is a provable connection between the claimant and the pseudonymous author.

In the case of the two registrations issued to Mr. Wright, during the examination process, the Office took note of the well-known pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto,” and asked the applicant to confirm that Craig Steven Wright was the author and claimant of the works being registered. Mr. Wright made that confirmation. This correspondence is part of the public registration record.

So in summary, CSW has yet to establish a provable connection that he is indeed Satoshi and this copyright registration is meaningless. Good try Sir, good try.