
Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy in U.S - antonius
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579430990187908008?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304250204579430990187908008.html
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RKearney
Article is behind a paywall.

    
    
        Mt. Gox, the struggling Japanese bitcoin exchange,
        has filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court
        to stop customers from freezing any of the company's
        assets that are located on U.S. soil.
        
        Lawyers put MtGox Co. Ltd. into Chapter 15 protection
        in Texas on Sunday, stating that a potential
        class-action lawsuit in Illinois could get in the
        way of reorganization efforts that are taking place
        in the company's home country.
        
        Mt. Gox, an exchange for buyers and sellers of the
        digital currency known as bitcoin, halted customer
        withdrawals on Feb. 7, later stating that it lost
        almost 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins and around
        100,000 of its own.
        
        "This theft or disappearance is currently the subject
        of an intense investigation which required Mt. Gox
        to devote most of its resources," Mt. Gox lawyers wrote
        in court papers.
        
        In the potential class-action lawsuit, lawyers are
        trying to round up U.S. residents who paid a fee to
        Mt. Gox to buy, sell or trade bitcoin, according to
        court papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.
        As part of that lawsuit, lawyers are expected to ask
        Tuesday during a court hearing for the power to freeze
        any of Mt. Gox's U.S. assets, which include any servers
        or other computer equipment that stores customer
        information about bitcoins.
        
        It is unclear what assets—if any—Mt. Gox has in the U.S.
        Still, the U.S. bankruptcy halts existing lawsuits, at
        least temporarily.
        
        More specifically, Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy
        Code is available to foreign companies that have sought
        protection of their home courts.
        
        Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan last
        month. Participating in the U.S. lawsuits at this
        point "would wastefully divert resources away from"
        the Japanese bankruptcy, Mt. Gox lawyers wrote in
        court papers.
        
        The company's lawyers said that Mt. Gox's debts
        totaled 6.5 billion yen ($63.9 million) versus
        assets of 3.84 billion yen.
        
        Mt. Gox hired the Baker & McKenzie law firm to
        represent it in bankruptcy. The company's case,
        numbered 14-31229, has been assigned to Judge
        Stacey G. Jernigan.
        
        —Jacqueline Palank contributed to this article.
        
        Write to Katy Stech at katherine.stech@wsj.com

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ScottWhigham
That doesn't make it acceptable for you to completely ignore their copyright
on that material.

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icebraining
I agree, it's not the paywall that makes it acceptable.

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res0nat0r
"Information wants to be free" doesn't justify that you should ignore their
copyright just because you can easily ignore their paywall with little
consequence to yourself.

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icebraining
I agree, the paywall being easy to ignore with little consequence to oneself
is not what justifies ignoring their copyright.

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res0nat0r
Ah, is this one of those things were copyrights don't matter since you aren't
a musician, director, writer, etc? And software should be paid for? Or if you
open source your work then there is no problem me incorporating that into my
closed source project, since copyright doesn't matter?

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icebraining
I don't want to pollute this thread with an offtopic discussion. If you want
to talk about it feel free to send me an email, it's on my profile.

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source99
Brings up an interesting point:

Is it possible and how would you freeze bitcoins owned by a person(or a
specific wallet).

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brazzy
Hm... would it be possible to have a blacklist of bitcoin addresses and get a
majority of miners to ignore transactions that involve these addresses?

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danielweber
You could have a blacklist.

You couldn't, as a practical matter, get the miners to agree on a blacklist. A
partial attempt would segment the bitcoin protocol and so the miners would
just avoid it completely.

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jug6ernaut
Any specific reason they would file in Texas?

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hcal
Texas is known as a responsive district so they won't have to wait for a court
date. That could be important if they thought an investor was going to move to
quickly to foreclose on assets.

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techsupporter
Doesn't the automatic stay kick in immediately upon filing? My understanding
was that the ultimate court date (or initial meeting with the trustee) wasn't
as big of a concern.

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mikikian
Here's a docket to follow the filings in the court for those curious:
[https://www.inforuptcy.com/filings/txnbke_411806-3-14-bk-312...](https://www.inforuptcy.com/filings/txnbke_411806-3-14-bk-31229-mtgox-
co-ltd-bankruptcy)

