Skanks for nothing: Google must identify 'anonymous' blogger

[R.A. Hettinga]

And, that presumably includes all *comments* on Blogger.com, too...

Cheers,
RAH
"Anonymous" has an IP address associated  with it, right?
--------

<http://www.infoworld.com/print/88177>Published on InfoWorld
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Infoworld

Skanks for nothing: Google must identify 'anonymous' blogger
By Robert X. Cringely
Created 2009-08-19 07:49AM


Remember when mom said not to worry when people call you names, it's
the sticks and stones you need to watch out for?

Well, it turns out mom was wrong. Again. In this case though, it's the
name-callers who are in danger of getting stoned (no, not in that way).

Yesterday a U.S. Federal judge ruled that Google must turn over the
name of an anonymous blogger [1] who took a severe disliking to aging
supermodel Liskula Cohen. The ripples emanating from the ruling could
potentially wash over every member of the blogosphere (including those
who delight in anonymously depositing nasty comments on blogs -- you
know who you are).

The backstory: In August 2008, some soon-to-not-be-anonymous blogger
(STNBAB) created a Google blog called "Skanks in NYC" (no longer
available, but archived at Mahalo [2]). The sole topic of this short-
lived blog: Liskula Cohen, a zygomatically-gifted Canuck who has
graced the covers of Vogue, Elle, and other magazines probably not in
the bathrooms of most InfoWorld readers.

Among other things, the STNBAB called Cohen "a psychotic, lying,
whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank." He (she?) also
called Cohen "an old hag." I bet that's the one that really stung.

(Note: This blog takes no position whatsoever on the relative
skankiness of any supermodel, Cohen or otherwise. I'm sure they're all
just sweet-natured gals at heart. Also: 100 percent virgins. But I
digress.)

Cohen's attorneys sent a nastygram to the blogger, who immediately
removed "Skanks in NYC" from Blogger.com. But it didn't end there.
Last January Cohen sued Google, demanding it reveal the blogger's
identity [3]. Yesterday, the court ruled that Google had to hand over
the only information it had -- the blogger's IP and e-mail addresses.

So it looks like STNBAB is about to be sued for defamation, libel, and
anything else Liskanka -- err, Liskula's attorneys can dig up. Bad
news for him/her, but potentially worse news for the rest of us.
Because if anonymous speech on the Internet is no longer anonymous,
some people will simply stop speaking.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. There is way too much nastiness
on the Net hiding under the shield of anonymity. "Skanks in NYC" is a
good example of this, but virtually every blog with any traffic
suffers from the Anonymous D------ Commenter syndrome (fill in the
blanks yourself). A lot of that would go away if people had to staple
their own identities to what they actually said.

Yes, free speech is a good and powerful thing. But as a wise superhero
once said, "with great power comes great responsibility."

Allen Wastler, managing editor at CNBC.com, finds some hope in the
'skank ruling' [4]:

...I do get a little riled when "mainstream media"  by comparison to
blogs  gets tagged for not being tough or hard on certain people or
subjects. Hey, I could be the roughest, toughest bully Corporate
America has ever seen ... if I could be anonymous and not worry about
threatening calls from lawyers.

But when you work for a newspaper, a TV network, or an established Net
news site, you have to follow the journalistic rules: You back things
up, with your identity and your reporting ... or you get sued.

The flip side of this: Anonymous speech that really does need to be
anonymous, like blogs by political dissidents in repressive countries.
The tactics used by Liskula's attorneys are not all that dissimilar to
those employed by the Chinese government to force information about
its political enemies [5] out of Yahoo, Google, and others, except of
course that her attorneys don't have tanks.

How far this ruling will extend is unknown at this point. But I think
the lesson here is be careful whom you attack on the Net, because they
might be able to find you and fight back.

One long-term impact of all this is obvious, though: The search term
"skank NYC" is now permanently anchored to Liskula Cohen's name on
Google [6]. If she was trying to protect her reputation, she went
about it in exactly the wrong way.

So let's whack the hornet's nest again, shall we? What's more
important: privacy & anonymity or identity & responsibility? Cast your
votes below or email me: cringe at infoworld.com [7].
		Adventures in IT anonymity attorneys blogger.com blogs censorship
defamation free speech Google law suit libel Liskula Cohen nastygrams
privacy responsibility Skanks in NYC slander Civil lawsuits Internet


Source URL (retrieved on 2009-08-19 11:41AM):
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/skanks-nothing-google-must-identi
fy-anonymous-blogger-177
Links:
[1]
http://www.infoworld.com/t/internet/court-orders-google-reveal-blogger-in-def
amation-case-184
[2] http://www.mahalo.com/skanks-in-nyc
[3]
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/01/07/vain-model-googles-herself-sues-ove
r-skanky-findings/
[4] http://www.cnbc.com/id/32462821
[5]
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/yahoo-caused-chinese-writers-10-ye
ar-sentence-105
[6]
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US303&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie
=UTF-8&q=Skank
  NYC
[7] mailto:cringe at infoworld.com