Dr. Laurence Godfrey (born 21 November 1952) was educated at the independent
The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, at
Westfield College,
University of London (
BSc Physics, first class honours, 1975) and at
University College London (
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
, High Energy Nuclear Physics, 1982). He established a legal precedent for
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
on
Usenet, in the landmark
Godfrey v Demon Internet Service
''Godfrey v Demon Internet Service'' 001QB 201 was a landmark court case in the United Kingdom concerning online defamation and the liability of Internet service providers.
Facts
Laurence Godfrey—a physics lecturer—learned that someone ha ...
case. He lives in France with his younger son Waylan and is unmarried, having twice been divorced. He is self-employed ''inter alia'' as an expert witness, consultant and technical adviser in Internet-related litigation.
History
In 1993 he and
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
colleague
Phillip Hallam-Baker
Phillip Hallam-Baker is a computer scientist, mostly known for contributions to Internet security, since the design of HTTP at CERN in 1992. Self-employed since 2018 as a consultant and expert witness in court cases, he previously worked at Comodo ...
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 presence to the Usenet newsgroups ''soc.culture.british'', ''soc.culture.canada'', ''soc.culture.german'' and ''soc.culture.thai''. His main topics of discourse there were the perceived and real shortcomings of the inhabitants of those countries.
He launched a series of court cases including ''
Godfrey v Demon Internet Service
''Godfrey v Demon Internet Service'' 001QB 201 was a landmark court case in the United Kingdom concerning online defamation and the liability of Internet service providers.
Facts
Laurence Godfrey—a physics lecturer—learned that someone ha ...
''. 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.
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
References
External links
Cornell University & Minnesota casesstory from 1998
freelance writing from 1992
Recent case in which Laurence Godfrey acted as expert/ technical consultant his main occupation since 2001.
1952 births
Living people
People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School
{{UK-law-bio-stub