Judge Rules To Reveal Anonymous Blogger's Identity Over Insults 271
Several readers have written to tell us of a ruling in the New York Supreme Court which will allow model Liskula Cohen to find out the identity of an anonymous blogger who posted some of her photos with captions including the words "psychotic," "skank," and "ho." The site was part of Blogger.com, and Google has already complied with a request for the author's IP address and email. "[Cohen's attorney] said that once his legal team tracks the e-mail address to a name, the next step will be to sue Cohen's detractor for defamation. He said he suspected the creator of the blog is an acquaintance of Cohen. The blog has not been operational for months. The unidentified creator of the blog was represented in court by an attorney, Anne Salisbury, who said her client voluntarily took the blog down when Cohen initiated legal action against it. ... the judge quoted a Virginia court that ruled in a similar case that nameless online taunters should be held accountable when their derision crosses a line. 'The protection of the right to communicate anonymously must be balanced against the need to assure that those persons who choose to abuse the opportunities presented by this medium can be made to answer for such transgressions.'"
Was it worth breaking privacy? (Score:5, Interesting)
For once, it's worth reading TFA until the end, when you find out: that the blog had "minuscule" traffic, it was taken down as soon as the lawsuit was filed, and it only had 5 posts all written in one day. Basically the blog was dead.
Sure, as a public figure, it's never fun to be insulted on the Internet (ask Mike Arrington if you don't believe me). But this didn't seem to warrant a full-fledged lawsuit.
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Re:Was it worth breaking privacy? (Score:2, Interesting)
No offense, but you could be hiding Osama bin Laden in your house, we should check there. He could have an atom bomb and the Lindbergh baby. I demand to know who kannibal_klown is to justify my belief.
Re:Should have went to LAW school. (Score:3, Interesting)
If I could file a lawsuit to force slashdot to reveal the IP and email of every user that has ever insulted me and then sue them for 5000 each I'd be a very rich and happy man...
There's a bit of a difference being someone saying "ae1294 is a jackass" (insult) and someone saying "ae1294 touches children" (slander). Whether or not what the blogger did qualifies as a simple insult or active slander is for the courts to decide. Hard to get to that point if the person remains anonymous.
I don't have much sympathy for the blog author anyway. If she had the user agreement she would have known that Google has to respond to a valid subpoena. If she had been smart she would have used a proxy and made sure they didn't know who she was either.
Re:Meet the new media : like old media (Score:3, Interesting)
This isn't the Enquirer. This is some person with a copy machine and enough time to plaster those copies around a bit.
The apparent lack of any real damages here seems to make this case ripe for summary dismissal.
Re:Decency Trumps Anonymity (Score:3, Interesting)
People need to grow some skin. Not everyone in the world likes you and not everyone is going to be nice to you. Calling you a "skanky ho" is not the same thing as falsely posting that contractor did shoddy work or that a politician had sex with you when he really didn't. In those cases there is actual damage being done. Calling someone a "skank", even if they are a model, on an internet forum or blog is par for the course. Get used to it and grow some skin. Hopefully she'll be picked up on south park and we'll see real hilarity ensue.
I hope this gets picked up by 4chan. I bet they'd have some fun with it.
Re:Was it worth breaking privacy? (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe this guy.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07312008/news/regionalnews/bar_goons_smash_and_slash_past_122359.htm [nypost.com]
The Manhattan doorman charged with hurling glasses at a woman's face at the Hudson Hotel served a month in jail for horribly disfiguring a top model by smashing a bottle across her cheek at a posh club last year.
Samir Dervisevic, 25, got into a drinking-tossing dust-up with model Liskula Cohen at Ultra on West 26th Street on Jan. 14, 2007, that ended when he cracked a bottle of vodka across her face, she tearfully recalled yesterday.