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Interviews: Ask Attorney and Author Mike Godwin a Question

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-ahead-and-ask dept.

Mike Godwin worked as the first staff counsel of the EFF and served as general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation. He has been a contributing editor of Reason magazine and was elected to the Open Source Initiative board in 2011. Mike is probably best known however for coining the internet adage Godwin's Law. He is currently general counsel and director of innovation policy at the R Street Institute. Mike has given us some of his time to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question (and one comparison involving Nazis or Hitler) per post.

18 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. What law would you add/change? by sbaker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you had a totally free chance to write or change a law - what would you change?

        -- Steve

    --
    www.sjbaker.org
    1. Re:What law would you add/change? by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I doubt, a Reason-contributing Libertarian would be adding new laws. Though, technically, abolition of an existing law is itself a law, we may be better off asking, what Mr. Godwin would start with dropping.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    2. Re:What law would you add/change? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      ^This. Do you know who else changed laws? HITLER!

    3. Re:What law would you add/change? by mi · · Score: 2

      Do you know who else changed laws? HITLER!

      Yes :) He was also a vegetarian, a war hero (WWI) an aquarellist, and loved children — very suspect traits all of them.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  2. Microsoft and Hitler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do you think that Microsoft's introduction of Windows 10 is similar to the way the Nazis seized power? Will Microsoft take all our privacy away?

  3. Oh, great ... by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Godwin'd from TFS ... now what?

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  4. 5 Ways Donald Trump Perfectly Mirrors... by tepples · · Score: 2

    Is Adam Tod Brown of Cracked justified in comparing Donald Trump's rise to power to that of an infamous German chancellor?

    1. Re:5 Ways Donald Trump Perfectly Mirrors... by Rei · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is it Godwin's law to compare Hitler to Trump, aka in reverse? You know, something like "I was reading about Hitler's rise the other day.... wow, that guy was a total Donald Trump!"

      --
      Nothing says 'welcome to the neighborhood' like a gunny sack full of dead squirrels.
  5. Rise of Libertarianism by mi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How would you judge the progress, Libertarianism is making in the US? Do you consider it rising, flat, or, perhaps, diminishing as a philosophy?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  6. Worst Ideas You Didn't Know Come From America by tepples · · Score: 2

    Do you have a generally positive or negative opinion of these people?

    • Harvard's cheer department
    • Henry Ford (automotive entrepreneur and author of The International Jew
    • Andrew Jackson (US President behind the Indian Removal Act)
    • Thomas Calloway Lea, Jr. (El Paso mayor behind use of cyanide pesticide at the border crossing)
    • Oliver Wendell Holmes (SCOTUS justice favoring sterilization of criminals)

    Source: "Worst Ideas You Didn't Know Come From America" by Melissa Dylan

  7. Encryption by Pollux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do you believe governments / the US Government will succeed in forcing digital communication giants like Apple or Google to either make illegal zero-knowledge encryption methods or mandate backdoor decryptors to snoop on customer data and communications?

  8. Betteridge-Godwin Law? by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

    Is the answer to any headline that asks "Is X the next Hitler?" invariably "no"?

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  9. Re:Godwin Exceptions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, all Godwin's Law is, in its purest form, is a look at probability. The law does not state anything about the quality or lack thereof of the analogy. What you might be thinking of is one of the many corollaries that have been derived from Godwin's Law, and incorrectly called Godwin's Law.

  10. Tool to stifle debate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Are you concerned that you've become an internet meme and your "law" a tool to stifle debate?

    I've seen legitimate comparisons to Nazism shut down because someone pops into a discussion in an almost automatic fashion and invokes "Godwins Law" when the word "Nazi" is used, whether the invocation was within context, or not.

  11. Do you miss USENET? by DamonHD · · Score: 2

    1) Is this shiny new Interweb thing better than text flooded over UUCP for actually understanding things and for thoughtful conversations? Discuss.

    2) If you could by fiat could change one thing technically or legally worldwide to make the online world a more civil place, what might it be? Might Google's 'hate speech' 'spellchecker' delaying or censoring Twitter/FB/etc posts mentioning Hi**er or similar help?

    Rgds

    Damon

    --
    http://m.earth.org.uk/
  12. USA First Use Doctrine in Other Countries by retroworks · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So much right-to-repair, right-to-own, right-to-modify law is based on an 1800s cotton baling wire case. We are happy that USA Supreme Court has routinely sided with refurbishers (Fuji vs. Jazz Camera, Lexmark vs. Arizona Ink Cartridge Remanufacturers), and the WTO defense of Remanufacturers in the Doha Round of NTTBs was great http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/t... However, just as alarming are the cases going the other way in other countries (Fuji won vs. Jazz Camera in Japan). As the USA recedes from its role as the largest consumer market, it seems that Chinese precedent might go either way. Will the future of copyright law in other countries follow the First Use Doctrine?

    --
    Gently reply
  13. Avoiding accidental copyright infringement by tepples · · Score: 2

    You're an author and an attorney, so I assume you know some things about laws specifically designed for authors. Is there a way for a writer, a composer, etc. to be sure that he didn't accidentally infringe someone's copyright when creating his own work? For instance, what should George Harrison have done to avoid infringing a copyright owned by Ronald Mack (Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music), Michael Bolton to avoid the Isley Brothers (Three Boys Music v. Michael Bolton), or Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to avoid Marvin Gaye (Gaye v. Thicke)? This is especially difficult for songwriters because of the combinatoric limits of possible melodies.

  14. Who ordered that? by RNLockwood · · Score: 2

    What Nazi set the requirement that each question for Mike Godwin must have a comparison with Nazis or Hitler to make it a valid post?

    --
    Nate