James Randi

James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7,1928 in Toronto, Canada), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, a skeptic, and an opponent of pseudoscience (including homeopathy). He is perhaps most known for the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, in which his James Randi Educational Foundation will award a prize of one million USD to anyone who is able to show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. He is also a regular on a television program called Bullshit!, which is hosted by noted skeptics Penn & Teller.

Legal disputes

The rivalry between Randi and his opponents has come to court on several occasions. These include the following.

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• In an interview with Twilight Zone Magazine, Randi accused Uri Geller and Eldon Byrd of being the ringleaders in a criminal blackmail plot aimed at destroying Randi http://www.uri-geller.com/eldon.htm. Byrd sued Randi, the court found that Randi's claim was technically false, but awarded Byrd $0 in damages having formed a low opinion of him http://www.mindspring.com/~anson/randi-hotline/1993/0011.html.
• In an interview with a Japanese newspaper, Randi was presented as saying that Uri Geller had driven a close friend to "shoot himself in the head", which Randi afterwards said was a metaphor which was lost in translation (see http://www.skepticfiles.org/randi/legal.htm). Since that friend died of natural causes, Geller successfully sued both the newspaper and Randi in the Japanese courts. Randi could not participate in the trial, did not recognise the court's authority (since "insult", as opposed to "libel", is not a crime in the US), and refused to pay the $2000 judgement that was awarded.
• Randi once commented that Uri Geller's tricks are of the same quality as those Randi read on the backs of cereal packets as a child. Geller sued both Randi and CSICOP. CSICOP disavowed Randi, pleading that the organization was not responsible for Randi's statements. The court agreed that including CSICOP was frivolous, and they were dropped from the action. Geller was ordered to pay substantial damages to CSICOP. http://www.mindspring.com/~anson/randi-hotline/appeal.html The order specifically excluded Randi from receiving any of the damages. At this time, Randi and Geller had both run up huge legal bills amounting to hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars. In a private meeting they achieved an out-of-court settlement, the details of which have been kept private. This case was largely responsible for the mutual decision of Randi and CSICOP to part company.