Who is Mike Godwin? 
Mike Godwin is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the creator of the Internet adage Godwin's Law. As of July 2007 he is general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation.
What does the law state?
Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is an adage that Mike Godwin formulated in 1990. The law states:
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"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
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Godwin's Law does not question whether any particular reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that one arising is increasingly probable. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued, that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact.
Although in one of its early forms Godwin's Law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions, the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads and wiki talk pages.
As a Usenet discussion gets longer it tends to get more heated; as more heat enters the discussion, tensions get higher and people start to insult each other over anything they can think of. Godwin's Law merely notes that, eventually, those tensions eventually cause someone to find the worst insults that come to mind - which will almost always include a Nazi comparison.
There is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress. This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin's Law. It is considered poor form to raise arbitrarily such a comparison with the motive of ending the thread.
Links
Godwin articles at publicknowledge.org.
Cyber Rights - About Mike Godwin.
Mike Godwin's Blog - godwinslaw.org.
Mike Godwin's articles at wired.com.
Article:" Meme, Counter-meme". Wired Magazine.
Godwin's Articles in reason.com.
Cyber RightsDefending Free speech in the Digital Age.
Mike Godwin's LinkedIn profile at linkedin.com.
Godwin's Law on YouTube.com.
Godwin's first post on Godwin's Law - Google
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