Evidence that the bitcoin white paper was released under a MIT license: https://twitter.com/RME/status/1352237110170935298?s=20
https://web.archive.org/web/20090106201347/https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/
Not as clear as you might want though; not going to blame people for declining to risk a legal fight over that level of nuance.
@pete can't think of a community more capital equipped to handle such frivolous lawsuits. if a core dev gets sued personally, I would donate thousands of dollars personally for legal fees, and I can imagine hundreds, if not thousands like me, and I'm certainly no whale. it shouldn't cost those developers one satoshi, nor take up too much attention, since I'm sure there are bitcoiner lawyers who would kill for the chance to take on this clown.
sad there's this new FUD now to deal with.
@pox Like it or not, even with money lawsuits take up tons of attention. And against a well resources adversary, there's no way to be sure you won't be personally affected.
@pete true. also true: some lawyers are very, very good at their jobs, if you can afford them.
but in any case, this is more about demonstrating a spine and saving noobs from scammers. bitcoin's defensive strategy cannot be top lawyers, because laws can and eventually will be changed ad-hoc to fight it. I'm happy this fat asshole is helping the project decentralize. CSW is a hormetic stressor.