Laurence Godfrey (physics lecturer)
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Dr. Laurence Godfrey (born 21 November 1952, London, England) established a legal precedent for libel on Usenet, in the landmark Godfrey v. Demon case.
In 1993 he and CERN colleague Phillip Hallam-Baker became immersed in a very public dispute on Usenet, which culminated in a libel action (settled out of court in Godfrey's favour).
Godfrey was a regular and controversial contributor to the Usenet newsgroups, 'soc.culture.british' and 'soc.culture.canada'.
He launched a series of court cases including Godfrey v. Demon. Godfrey has used Britain's strict libel laws to bring successful libel actions, suing in British courts a number of organizations based in other countries, including Cornell University and the University of Minnesota.[1]
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[edit] Libel Cases
- 1995, Godfrey v. Hallam-Baker
- 1997, Godfrey v. Demon Internet
- 1998, Godfrey v. Cornell University/Dolenga
- 1998, Godfrey v. University of Minnesota/Starnet/Quanchairut
- 1998, Godfrey v. Melbourne PC Users Group
- (unknown) Godfrey v. New Zealand TeleCom
- (unknown) Godfrey v. Toronto Star
[edit] Quotes
"I am happy with the settlement. I don't think there is a right, in fact I'm quite sure there's no right, to libel other people on the Internet, to concoct fabricated allegations and try to destroy people's reputations." [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Jill Priluck. "Free Speech, But Whose?", Wired, 1998-06-07. Retrieved on 2007-10-23.
- ^ Linda Harrison. "Demon coughs up damages in Godfrey libel case", The Register, 2000-03-30. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
[edit] External links
- Going Postal: Laurence Godfrey at attrition.org
- Cornell University & Minnesota cases story from 1998
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