All those who supprt and extending the original version of Bitcoin own database rights.
The original miners in Bitcoin hold database rights because they directly contributed to the creation and extension of the Bitcoin blockchain.
To understand this, we need to break down how UK law handles database rights and how those miners fit into it.
In the UK, database rights come from the Database Directive, which was adopted into UK law through the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997. These laws protect the people who invest significant time, money, or effort into creating or maintaining a database.
A database, legally speaking, is any organised collection of data that can be accessed and managed. The Bitcoin blockchain, as a digital ledger storing transaction records, falls within this definition.
Now, what does this have to do with miners?
The early Bitcoin miners, those who ran full nodes and created blocks, didn’t just participate in the system by pressing a button.
Being a miner foes not make you Satoshi. But, these entities were integral to expanding the blockchain, adding new blocks to the database, verifying transactions, and ensuring everything followed the original rules laid out in Satoshi Nakamoto’s protocol. In legal terms, these miners were not merely observers; they were active participants who made substantial contributions to maintaining and growing the database.
The law on database rights protects those who invest in the creation or management of a database.
In Bitcoin, it wasn’t Satoshi alone who created the database.
The miners who followed the original protocol by contributing blocks before the network scaled and changed in structure also invested significantly in the system’s success. Their investment wasn’t just financial—it was also technical and computational, as they kept the system running and secure.
Take the case of British Horseracing Board v William Hill (2004), where the Court ruled that people who invest resources in compiling or maintaining a database have a right to control how that database is used. The early Bitcoin miners were doing exactly this: they were helping to compile and maintain the blockchain, adding new blocks and verifying transactions.
Without them, the Bitcoin blockchain would not have been able to grow or continue functioning. This same principle applies here—they should hold rights over the database they helped create.
In legal terms, this concept is backed by something called “sui generis” database rights. This special type of right was designed to protect those who make substantial investments in obtaining, verifying, or presenting data, which fits exactly with what these miners did.
Each time they added a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain, they weren’t just running hardware; they were verifying and presenting new data, ensuring the blockchain stayed secure and consistent with Satoshi’s original vision.
It’s also important to note that not everyone involved in Bitcoin at that time qualifies for these database rights. People who simply provided hashing power to mining pools but didn’t create blocks or run nodes weren’t making the same kind of direct investment in the database itself.
Under English law, only those who actively created blocks and participated in the verification of transactions can claim these rights, because they were the ones contributing to the creation and maintenance of the blockchain as a database.
No full nodes sorry.
A key case to reference is Football Dataco v Sportradar (2013), where the Court reaffirmed that database rights extend to those who systematically verify and present data.
1/4
S. Tominaga AKA CSW
Oct 20, 2024
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1847793720776937525.html
https://t.me/S_Tominaga/1540
The original miners in Bitcoin hold database rights because they directly contributed to the creation and extension of the Bitcoin blockchain.
To understand this, we need to break down how UK law handles database rights and how those miners fit into it.
In the UK, database rights come from the Database Directive, which was adopted into UK law through the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997. These laws protect the people who invest significant time, money, or effort into creating or maintaining a database.
A database, legally speaking, is any organised collection of data that can be accessed and managed. The Bitcoin blockchain, as a digital ledger storing transaction records, falls within this definition.
Now, what does this have to do with miners?
The early Bitcoin miners, those who ran full nodes and created blocks, didn’t just participate in the system by pressing a button.
Being a miner foes not make you Satoshi. But, these entities were integral to expanding the blockchain, adding new blocks to the database, verifying transactions, and ensuring everything followed the original rules laid out in Satoshi Nakamoto’s protocol. In legal terms, these miners were not merely observers; they were active participants who made substantial contributions to maintaining and growing the database.
The law on database rights protects those who invest in the creation or management of a database.
In Bitcoin, it wasn’t Satoshi alone who created the database.
The miners who followed the original protocol by contributing blocks before the network scaled and changed in structure also invested significantly in the system’s success. Their investment wasn’t just financial—it was also technical and computational, as they kept the system running and secure.
Take the case of British Horseracing Board v William Hill (2004), where the Court ruled that people who invest resources in compiling or maintaining a database have a right to control how that database is used. The early Bitcoin miners were doing exactly this: they were helping to compile and maintain the blockchain, adding new blocks and verifying transactions.
Without them, the Bitcoin blockchain would not have been able to grow or continue functioning. This same principle applies here—they should hold rights over the database they helped create.
In legal terms, this concept is backed by something called “sui generis” database rights. This special type of right was designed to protect those who make substantial investments in obtaining, verifying, or presenting data, which fits exactly with what these miners did.
Each time they added a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain, they weren’t just running hardware; they were verifying and presenting new data, ensuring the blockchain stayed secure and consistent with Satoshi’s original vision.
It’s also important to note that not everyone involved in Bitcoin at that time qualifies for these database rights. People who simply provided hashing power to mining pools but didn’t create blocks or run nodes weren’t making the same kind of direct investment in the database itself.
Under English law, only those who actively created blocks and participated in the verification of transactions can claim these rights, because they were the ones contributing to the creation and maintenance of the blockchain as a database.
No full nodes sorry.
A key case to reference is Football Dataco v Sportradar (2013), where the Court reaffirmed that database rights extend to those who systematically verify and present data.
1/4
S. Tominaga AKA CSW
Oct 20, 2024
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1847793720776937525.html
https://t.me/S_Tominaga/1540
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