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Mike Godwin hired by Wikimedia Foundation

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the nazis-in-dept-line-mean-story-is-cancelled dept.

Raul654 writes "Mike Godwin, first legal counsel for the EFF who is best known for coining Godwin's law, has been hired as the legal counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation."

10 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory... by perlionex · · Score: 5, Funny

    XKCD Comic:

    Soldier: General, Italian forces have entered Egypt.
    General: As I expected. This is a foolish move by Mussolini, but like Hitler he will no doubt force his commanders to --
    Soldier: Hey. Godwin's law.
    General: Dammit. You know, this may become a problem.

    --
    Gan Family Homepage
    1. Re:Obligatory... by Yetihehe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, as online discussions grows longer, probability of comparison involving ANYTHING approaches one. It's like with million monkeys typing random letters, but online users actually produce gramatical content (mostly).

      --
      Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
    2. Re:Obligatory... by Evilest+Doer · · Score: 4, Funny

      To get back on topic, I thought Godwin's law doesn't apply where the topic actually is Hitler and/or Nazis - though I can't find a reference for it.
      It doesn't apply, but that never stops a bunch of stupid slashbots from invoking it every time Hitler is mentioned. And, your "reference" would be simple logic.


      Godwin's law is more for things like discussions on whether coffee or tea is better, with the tea lover calling the coffee lover a Nazi since Hitler liked coffee.

      Discussions on, say, comparing a certain president - who invades countries on false pretenses, tries to establish a police state in his own country, calls people who disagrees with him "traitors", kills hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and calls it "collateral damage", and so on - with Hitler would not invoke Godwin's law since there is a reasonable basis for a comparison.

      --
      I feel like death on a soda cracker.
  2. So I heard... by skrolle2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So I heard he's somewhat of a legal nazi...

  3. Amazing by FieroEtnl · · Score: 5, Funny

    Only three comments and this thread has already been Godwin'ed. I'm sure he would be proud.

  4. Do no evil by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't do evil - annexe it.

    --
    It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
  5. Re:No soup for you. by mnemonic · · Score: 3, Funny


    That's okay. We still love you.

    --Mike

  6. Re:Qualifications by mnemonic · · Score: 5, Interesting


    EFF won the Steve Jackson Games case and Reno versus ACLU. Both cases were won while I was staff counsel at EFF. Just saying.

    (I should add that I'm proud of EFF's work since then.)

  7. Re:Makes me a little sad... by dubl-u · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It make me a little sad to see someone who was once on the side of good (the EFF) turn to the side of evil (Wikipedia).

    Yes, darn them for providing a great free reference site whose content is all licensed under the GFDL. Thank goodness people are seeing through their sinister plan to educate the populace while proving that open content can work just as well as open software!

  8. Re:Been Hired, eh? by eggboard · · Score: 3, Funny

    Damn, I wanted to make that joke. Mine was shorter: "The Nazis have won."

    --
    Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others