Author of 'Skank' Blog to Sue Google for $15 M
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Rosemary, Port, Liskula, Cohen, Skank | Themes: The Internet, Business
A Google Blogger user by the name of Rosemary Port has said she will sue Google for revealing her identity.
Liskula Cohen brought Google to court when the blog 'Skanks in NYC' posted several photographs of her along with comments that Cohen felt were defamatory. The anonymous poster wrote that the model was the "skankiest in NYC" and said that she was "a forty-something who may have been hot 10 years ago when she was 36." She also described the former Elle and Vogue model as an “old hag” and a “psychotic lying whore.”
Cohen was victorious in her efforts to have the identity of the author revealed and last week announced that she had made contact with the owner of the now defunct blog. Cohen said the woman was an acquaintance and "an irrelevant person who was always around." Now that 'irrelevant person' is planning to sue Google for millions of dollars in a privacy suit.
Rosemary Port, a 27-year-old student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, has said she plans to sue Google. Port claims that before Cohen created a media circus around the comments made, her blog had probably only been seen by a handful of people. According to ZDNet, the student claims the whole spectacle constitutes a violation of her privacy.
"This has become a public spectacle and a circus that is not my doing. By going to the press, she defamed herself," the woman said according to ZDNet.
"Before her suit, there were probably two hits on my Web site: One from me looking at it, and one from her looking at it. That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated," she added. Port's lawyer says they will sue Google for “breaching its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity.”
"I feel proud to live in a country where you're not persecuted for your opinions," Ms Port said in a statement to the New York Daily News. "That right has to be protected.
Following last week's ruling, the Mountain View-based company stated that it valued users' privacy and would only reveal the identity of a user in response to a subpoena or court order. Cohen has since said she will not go ahead with her planned defamation suit against Port. Do you think Port has a right to sue Google? Let us know in the comments below.
*Image Credit: New York Daily News
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What? Another reason why this world makes no sense.
She SHOULD take Google to court, then the judge should fine her $50,000 for wasting the time of the American Justice System.
So she posted infomation on the web that she didn't want people to see. I can imagine what her grades look like, and what she has to do to keep them there..... Oye.
huh?
am i the only one who doesn't get why Google is involved?
Barf.
This whole mess is ridiculous.
who cares. i shouldnt have wasted my time reading this or especially posting a comment, but work is very slow today...
really?...after waiting an entire morning, this is the BEST news you could come up with?
Where is THG going?...
Hell no she wasn't right to sue Google! What you say or do on the web you have to take responsibility for. She types those things on her blog and doesn't have the blog locked so off course people will be able to find it using Google or Yahoo or any other means of search.
"I feel proud to live in a country where you're not persecuted for your opinions"....but she is going to sue the company that operates a search engine because it helped people finding her site? How naive and stupid is this girl!
She SHOULD take Google to court, then the judge should fine her $50,000 for wasting the time of the American Justice System. So she posted infomation on the web that she didn't want people to see. I can imagine what her grades look like, and what she has to do to keep them there..... Oye.
hahahahaha
Hell no she wasn't right to sue Google! What you say or do on the web you have to take responsibility for. She types those things on her blog and doesn't have the blog locked so off course people will be able to find it using Google or Yahoo or any other means of search.
"I feel proud to live in a country where you're not persecuted for your opinions"....but she is going to sue the company that operates a search engine because it helped people finding her site? How naive and stupid is this girl!
She SHOULD take Google to court, then the judge should fine her $50,000 for wasting the time of the American Justice System. So she posted infomation on the web that she didn't want people to see. I can imagine what her grades look like, and what she has to do to keep them there..... Oye.
+1. People are just stupid. WHY would they post privet info online!?!?!
FYI: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET!!!!!!
definitely. freedom of speech
Google got a subpoena so they had no other choice. They do protect us but if you screw up bad enough that a judge will issue a subpoena to get your info google is not going to be your body guard. I doubt this even gets to trial.
Skank
Google only revealed her identity becaused they were forced to by a court ordered subpeona. She has no case against Google since they were following the court order and she can't sue the court. This will take google's lawyers 30sec to get dismissed.
Did she prove in court that she's not a skank? This lawsuit is not good for protecting privacy and anonimity, normal people can take heckling, it's part of being famous. Hell, I heckle many of the Tom's writers on a daily basis, I've not heard from their lawyers yet... Kudos to the Tom's staff for taking it like a man...
Every here of a cyber bully!! I believe there is a law out there to protect the people that are being bullied. In my opinion, she was being bullied and now Rosemary Port is being harassed since her name was published. It doesn't pay to say bad things about people. Good Luck with you lawsuit Rosemary.... NOT.
15 Mil? what a comedy.
You (Port) posted a defamatory comment -ONLINE BLOG- (does not matter if it's a second or a nano second). Hello? Blog = privacy? Online = privacy? ...Um, do you have a problem with 1+1=2?
Imo, there is a special place in hell for lawyers.
The fashion institute of technology? I cannot comprehend. Major rofl.
Judging by some comments here I don't think some people understand what's going on. She's not suing google because people used google to search for her blog and find out her identity. The blog site she had posted on was hosted by google and google was the one that gave out her identity by providing her personal information.
Now whether or not she has the right to sue google is a toss up because google didn't WANT to give out her info, they were against it. They only gave it out because they were ordered by the court to do so, so google didn't really have much choice in the matter. Either give out the info or face prosecution for violating a court order. Personally, because of that fact, I don't see her lawsuit against google going anywhere...
The skank should have gotten over herself. Whoopie... someone called her a name on the internet. She shouldn't even walk out of her house if she's so sensitive.
What about the Perez Hiltons blog? He makes money and doesn't get sued by making parody and downright insulting remarks to everyone in Hollywood.
If people are going to be suing each other for comments on blogs... thats the end blogs, comments, feedback etc.
The whole thing is BS. A nobody with a tiny page and another has-been never-heard of model are both wasting the the court system.
The court had no merit to bother with this and FORCE Google to locate this girl.
And the model... cry baby... snif snif... and she caaaaaaaalled me a name, mommy!
People have got to realize that just because you HAVE an opinion does not mean you should VOICE your opinion. I'm not an expert, but anonymity and the internet do not go hand-in-hand unless you know how to route your blog through different ISP's. If your IP address is static, someone can find you.
I would think any judge in his right mind would throw this one out as being frivolous (sp?).
Besides, the article specifically says, "Cohen has since said she will not go ahead with her planned defamation suit against Port."
As much as I dislike it, it seems smart for her to sue Google. Why? Because the first "skank" post and subsequent exposure brought her stupid blog numerous hits, and suing Google will get her even more. She is just doing this for more publicity. If Google had a court order to give over the info, then she has no case.
Her skanky friend and her may have just cooked this whole thing to draw publicity to themselves...
Skank
LOL! +1
This girl is retarded, if she was smart its called surf the internet with a proxy or the half dozen tools out there to conceal your identity better then hiding behind some websites EULA. I hope that actor in return sues her again. This is why this country is going down the crapper.
Sorry folks. As childish and silly as this all is, she does have a right to call the woman a Skank. She can do so anonymously. You do realize that our freedom of speech is based upon being able to says something ANONYMOUSLY without the government forcing the a media outlet to release your name. Without it we would still be a colony of England. It was the only way information at that time to could distributed without your head being chopped off.. or did they hang you.
She called the woman a skank. Ok. Childish yes. But it did not hurt her career. No one saw this blog and said, She's a Skank, you cannot put here in my dress! Yeah she called her a whore. Well that too is childish, but no one thought she was really a "whore" whore. So there is no damage for a libel suit. That's the reason her lawyer dropped it. He had no chance of winning.
The issue here isn't this stupid blog, but the ability to speak out anonymously. So many of us think that this is about someone saying something bad about you on facebook, when in truth it is about the ability to speak your opinions without the government or SKANK models being able to sue you for calling them a Skank. Forget about the Skank model, think about this in political or religous terms. Shouldn't we be able to call a politician an flaming idiot without worrying about Sarah Palin suing us.
Should she sue Google, no. Google was forced by the LAW to release the name. What Google should have done is appeal that ruling. It wouldn't have cost them that much AND it would have gotten them better publicity. Both parties in this are idiots. The issue isn't about the idiot or skank, but about the repercussions for this stupid little fight.
On one hand, the blogger should have the right to post inflammatory comments, but I don't think that is what the case is about. If I understand correctly, it seems the blogger is mad because she set up a blog and then people actually started viewing it.
This is probably my 3rd or 4th post ever but this must be said.
Whether google or the courts or what/whoever is liable, remember, when you post a comment or picture or whatever, it will always be on a server somewhere where some government/media agency can get it. This also includes facebook, twitter, and cell phone text messages. It will be on a server forever. Just look at the Detroit Mayor getting nailed using text messages, or how Ben Roethlisberger (Steelers QB) will be cleared because they were able to get the alleged victims 2 year old text messages last week. The point is, do not post,text,etc unless it is generic, because any negative thing will be found out and if needed used against you. The internet is a big area, and posting something will find an audience bigger than most newspaper circulations, this in itself lends to outing the poster, as a newspaper will be held liable for its content since it is not anonymous, and a slanderous posting is not like writing on a bathroom wall but like buying a personal ad in the NY Times.
she probably has sex in her front yard and then anyone who sees her she claims is a peeping tom.
Google has an obligation to protect her "expectation of anonymity"? Is that seriously how they're wording it?
Google only revealed her identity becaused they were forced to by a court ordered subpeona. She has no case against Google since they were following the court order and she can't sue the court. This will take google's lawyers 30sec to get dismissed.
All this time making her blog more popular... ugh!
No, no, and no gmcboot. Free speech makes no provisions for anonymity, and only applies to the government controlling what is said. There is no protection from an individual suing you.