A crypto wallet theft lawsuit brought by a man who claims to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could jeopardize the future of open source software development.
That’s according to the endorsement of Jack Dorsey. Bitcoin Legal Defense Fundwhich is taking on a case to defend 11 Bitcoin developers named in a lawsuit filed by craig wrightan Australian computer scientist who rose to fame in 2016 with a hotly contested claim to be the founding father of Bitcoin.
The crux of the case at hand dates back to 2021 when Wright, through a Seychelles-based company called Tulip Trading, released a so-called “letter before action” against 16 Bitcoin software developers, in an attempt to regain access to the £4 billion ($5 billion) of Bitcoin it claims to own. Wright he said he lost access to private keys for 111,000 Bitcoins after his home network was hacked the previous year, and that it was the responsibility of the key developers of Bitcoin Core (the main version of the Bitcoin protocol software) to remedy illegitimate cryptographic transactions.
Although the case was initially fired last year before going to court, a UK appeals court reversed that decision back in Marchallowing the case to proceed to a trial expected sometime in 2024. In his findings, Lord Justice Birss pointed to academic literature that questions whether public blockchains are truly decentralized.
“If Bitcoin’s decentralized governance is indeed a myth, then in my judgment there is a lot to be said for the claim that Bitcoin developers, while acting as developers, owe fiduciary duties to the true owners of that property,” he wrote. .
So, on Wednesday of this week, 11 Bitcoin developers presented their defense with the support of the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit created in 2021 by Twitter and Block (formerly Square) co-founder Jack Dorsey, Block’s head of litigation white martin and co-founder of Chaincode Labs Alex Morcos. The fund now also includes the legal director jess jonaswho joined in January.
“Multi-front litigation”
The founders of the fund initially wrote an open letter to Bitcoin developers last year to explain their Reason to be. They pointed to the “multiple front litigation” facing the Bitcoin community, including the efforts of Craig Wright, which they confirmed at the time that he would lead the defense. While they noted that the main objective of the fund was to defend developers “of lawsuits related to its activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem”, they also noted that the ramifications extended much deeper into the broader realm of open source.
“The litigation and continued threats are having the desired effect: individual defendants have chosen to capitulate in the absence of legal support,” the trio wrote. “Open source developers, who are often independent, are especially susceptible to legal pressure. In response, we are proposing a coordinated and formalized response to help defend developers.”
a known story
Indeed, the problem of the legal system interfering with open source software development has become a hot topic lately. In a letter to EU authorities last week, more than a dozen open source industry bodies said that the new proposal The Cyber Resilience Act, which seeks to codify cybersecurity practices for digital products sold in Europe, may have a “chilling effect” on software development, as open source developers could be personally liable for software errors. security that occur in a later product. In other words, if the Act is passed in its current form, developers might be less inclined to contribute to open source projects for fear of legal disputes.
Elsewhere, some hold that he The next EU AI Lawthat seeks to govern AI applications based on perceived risks, could create onerous legal liability for open source developers working on General Purpose AI (GPAI) systems and give greater power to well-funded big tech companies .
While the latest episode surrounding Bitcoin is somewhat different, it does lead to similar issues. The overarching story may well be about who may or may not control Bitcoin, and whether the project’s core developer base should be forced to create some kind of “backdoor” to allow third-party access to private keys. But bubbling under the surface is critical to the future of software, and whether open source developers should have a fiduciary duty to their users.
“We believe these lawsuits are frivolous, but we have yet to vigorously oppose them,” Jonas said in a statement.
Legal responsability
Crucial to the defendants’ case is the simple fact that Bitcoin was released under an open source MIT license, which places little legal liability on those who maintain the software. the MIT license explicitly declares:
In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damage, or other liability, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise, arising out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.
But if, for whatever reason, a court was to rule on the side of Tulip Trading, this could destroy one of the basic tenets of the MIT License that underpins countless open source projects today, setting a dangerous precedent forcing open source developers, many of whom work on your own time on your own dime – to serve the end user of that software, no matter what their demands are.
“The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund fights not just for Bitcoin, but for the right of open source developers to freely create and share their code with the world for the greater good,” Morcos said in a separate statement. “The Tulip Trading case threatens not only the MIT license, but also the very notion of free speech. Our collective mission is to safeguard innovation by protecting developers from legal intimidation.”
While there are 16 defendants in total, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund only represents 11 developers who worked on Bitcoin Core. There is a 12th Bitcoin Core defendant who has not sought help from the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, plus four other defendants who have worked on various Bitcoin forks who are arranging their own attorney.
Separately, Wright has launched a side case against other Bitcoin developer entities, with Wright claiming ownership of the copyright and the Bitcoin database on the grounds that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. This case was dismissed in Februarybut the demand quickly resurfaced in revised form with the defendants presenting his defense last month. The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund also supports two Bitcoin Core developers named in that lawsuit.
“The results of these cases are important to everyone, even those who may not be interested in Bitcoin, because these lawsuits could have serious detrimental effects on open source development in general, negatively impacting our lives. in ways we may not even realize. until it’s too late,” Dorsey added in a statement.
—————————————————-
Source link