So I came across this article and found it a very interesting topic.
Should bloggers be more careful when stating opinions and ranting on their blogging networks? Or should freedom of speech be preserved in such situations?
Should we be restricted in what we talk about on our own little piece of cyberspace?
If we were, I think Perez Hilton would have been out of business by now… along with all the other 10 000 celebrity gossip bloggers.
A NEW YORK blogger who described a model as a “skank” is planning to sue Google for $18 million after the internet giant revealed her identity.
Rosemary Port was sued by former Vogue cover girl Liskula Cohen after Google was forced to reveal her identity following a court order, The New York Daily News reports.
Ms Cohen had sought the identity of the fashion blogger so she could pursue a defamation case against her, it had earlier been revealed.
Ms Port’s offending part of the blog – which was run on Google’s blogger.com – read “I would have to say the first-place award for ‘Skankiest in NYC’ would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen”.
She also described Ms Cohen as an “old hag” and a “psychotic lying whore”.
Ms Port had originally defended her actions in court, claiming blogs “serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting”, and should not be treated as factual assertions, a claim rejected by the judge.
“This has become a public spectacle and a circus that is not my doing,” Ms Port said.
“By going to the press, she defamed herself.”
The 29-year-old New York fashion student now says Google didn’t do enough to protect her privacy.
“When I was being defended by attorneys for Google, I thought my right to privacy was being protected,” she told the NY Daily News.
“But that right fell through the cracks. Without any warning, I was put on a silver platter for the press to attack me.
“I would think that a multi-billion dollar conglomerate would protect the rights of all its users.”
Her suit claims Google “breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity,” Ms Port’s lawyer, Salvatore Strazzullo, said.
“I’m ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court,” Mr Strazzullo said.
“Our Founding Fathers wrote The Federalist Papers under pseudonyms. Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously.
“Shouldn’t that right extend to the new public square of the internet?”
Mr Strazzullo said: “Ms Cohen loves the spotlight. She brought this notoriety on herself. Then she used a PR circus to defame my client.”
But Cohen’s lawyer, Steven Wagner, hit back saying the model was never chasing media attention.
“The idea that Liskula brought this on herself is repulsive,” he said.
“If we had thought for a minute that the Google case would have brought more attention to the anonymous blogger’s site, we never would have started it.”
clouie, 
audrey and one other person are discussing. 
Black&white is the best color combo. Simple& pretty.
Beckie, and 
severnyproductions 3:49 PM on August 30, 2009 Permalink |
awesome illusions