Post by Mamalicious on Aug 24, 2009 14:18:13 GMT 12
Blogger to sue Google over 'skank' claims
By MSN NZ staff
Monday, August 24, 2009
A New York fashion student who called a model a "psychotic, lying, whoring ... skank" on her blog plans to file an $18 million lawsuit against Google for revealing her identity, according to reports.
Rosemary Port, 29, was sued by 37-year-old model Liskula Cohen over an alleged defamatory post on her anonymous Google blog account.
Google was forced to reveal Port's identitiy after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge rejected her claims that blogs should not be regarded as fact.
"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."
The New York Fashion Institute of Technology student said she plans to file an $18 million lawsuit against Google.
Port's attorney Salvatore Strazzullo said Google "breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity."
"I'm ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court," he said.
"Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn't that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?"
Port said Cohen had defamed herself by taking the case to court.
"This has become a public spectacle and a circus that is not my doing," she said.
"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."
But Cohen's lawyer, Steven Wagner, said the model never sought media coverage.
"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."
Oh dear
By MSN NZ staff
Monday, August 24, 2009
A New York fashion student who called a model a "psychotic, lying, whoring ... skank" on her blog plans to file an $18 million lawsuit against Google for revealing her identity, according to reports.
Rosemary Port, 29, was sued by 37-year-old model Liskula Cohen over an alleged defamatory post on her anonymous Google blog account.
Google was forced to reveal Port's identitiy after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge rejected her claims that blogs should not be regarded as fact.
"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."
The New York Fashion Institute of Technology student said she plans to file an $18 million lawsuit against Google.
Port's attorney Salvatore Strazzullo said Google "breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity."
"I'm ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court," he said.
"Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn't that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?"
Port said Cohen had defamed herself by taking the case to court.
"This has become a public spectacle and a circus that is not my doing," she said.
"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."
But Cohen's lawyer, Steven Wagner, said the model never sought media coverage.
"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."
Oh dear
