Mike Godwin

Mike Godwin focuses his research and writing on the areas of patent and copyright reform, surveillance reform, technology policy, freedom of expression and global internet policy.

He previously served as a senior policy advisor at Internews, advising the organization’s public-policy partners in developing and transitional democracies as part of the Global Internet Policy Project.

Mike also served as general counsel for the California-based Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia and other collaborative projects. There, he created and directed anti-censorship, privacy, trademark and copyright strategies and policies including Wikimedia’s responses to the SOPA and PIPA initiatives.

Prior to that, Godwin was the first staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which he advised on a range of legal issues centered on freedom of expression and privacy rights during the accelerating growth of Internet access in the United States. His continuing career as an Internet-law thought leader has included a policy fellowship at the Center for Democracy and Technology and a research fellowship at Yale Law School.

Early in his career, he served as a reporter and later editor-in-chief of The Daily Texan. He is also a contributing editor at Reason magazine and is the originator of the widely cited “Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies,” which, in 2012, was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Godwin received his bachelor’s and juris doctor at the University of Texas at Austin.