'Chilling effect on free speech'

Laurence Godfrey: Three-year battle

By internet correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones

For Dr Laurence Godfrey Thursday's settlement of his libel case is a personal triumph.

For three years he battled with Demon Internet in what his lawyers described as a David and Goliath case. He says his one-year-old child has hardly seen him, so time-consuming has the case been.

But some internet service providers business have warned the outcome is a disaster for free speech.

The case was really lost for Demon last year when Mr Justice Morland rejected the main line of its defence - that it was an innocent distributor of material which nobody disputed was unpleasant and defamatory.

Demon talked for a while of appealing against that ruling - but then dropped the idea. But the company proceeded with the rest of the case until Thursday when it finally settled with Dr Godfrey in what must be seen as a humiliating defeat.