CNN reports of a potentially groundbreaking court ruling ordering Google to identify the IP and email addresses of an anonymous blogger:
A model who was slammed with derogatory terms by an anonymous blogger has the right to learn the identity of her online heckler, a judge ruled.Google complied with the court’s ruling, submitting the creator’s IP address and e-mail address.
In August 2008, a user of Blogger.com, Google’s blogging service, created “Skanks in NYC,” a site that assailed Liskula Cohen, 37, a Canadian-born onetime cover girl who has appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines. The blog featured photos of Cohen captioned with terms including “psychotic,” “ho,” and “skank.”
On Monday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ruled that Google must hand over to Cohen any identifying information it possesses about the blog’s creator.
Right now any budding teenage psychopath can go online and anonymously accuse his enemies of the vilest things and there is nothing that can be done about it.
There are websites the entire purpose of which is to allow people to anonymously defame others.
Thus far the Courts have ruled that the owners of these sites cannot be held liable for the comments posted there by others.
But this case just might signal the beginning of the end of the anonymous slanderer.
Let’s hope so.
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1 Digital Society » Blog Archive » The Free Press Future: ID And Photo Required For Starting A Blog // Apr 12, 2010 at 8:00 pm
[...] A New York judge ordering Google to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger [...]
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