Kanye West has taken legal action to stop the launch of the Bitcoin Coinye West, claiming copyright infringement. His lawyers have filed a cease and desist letter to the seven anonymous programmers who created the digital currency.
“Consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services or is, at the very least, affiliated with, or has sponsored or endorsed the cryptocurrency,” one of his attorneys wrote.
His lawyers also state that consumers might be confused by Coinye West, as the Yeezus rapper’s cartoon face is attached to it.
“Given Mr. West’s wide-ranging entrepreneurial accomplishments, consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that Mr. West is the source of your services,” the letter reads, TIME reports.
Despite West’s legal team’s attempts to stop it, it seems the digital coin launched on Tuesday night at 7pm. There is currently a message on their website, which reads, “Due to legal pressure, we will be launching today Jan. 7.” The initial launch date was Jan. 11.
On Monday night, the developers of Coinye West, now called CoinyeCoin, told the Wall Street Journal that they want to release the coding to the public so even West’s lawyers can’t stop it.
“We want to release this to the public before the man can try to crush it. They’ll still come after us, but that’s OK.”
image: ABC