Trash-talking bloggers warned of perils
Wed, August 26, 2009
A court battle to ID a name caller is cited as a wake-ublogp call
MONTREAL -- Anonymous bloggers who like to trash talk online should brush up on the latest cyber etiquette, say legal experts.
The recent case of a Canadian model who won a court battle to reveal the identity of a nasty name-calling blogger should be a wake-up call about the legal implications of sharing derogatory opinions online, said lawyer David Fewer of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
"It should be an eye opener for most people," Fewer said yesterday. "They are not nearly as anonymous on the Internet as they think they are."
Liskula Cohen, a former model for Vogue and Flare magazines, won a court order in New York that forced Google to unmask the identity of a blogger, who had called her a "skank" and made other off-colour comments about her online.
Cohen has since dropped a multimillion lawsuit against the blogger, saying it wouldn't add anything to her life. Meanwhile, the blogger, Rosemary Port, is suing Google for violating her privacy by revealing her name.Fewer said Canadian courts, as well as courts in many other jurisdictions, will likely give people the opportunity to launch similar court battles to reveal the secret identity of an online persona or the person behind an online publication.
"If you've got a non-frivolous legal claim you are entitled to your day in court," said Fewer, acting director of the clinic, based at the University of Ottawa.
Cohen's lawyer, Steve Wagner, said the case has struck a chord with people and he expects to see more of them end up in court. "It goes well beyond just trash talking.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/08/26/10613866-sun.html
So... on one hand I guess we have stuff like harassment, defamation of character... and on the other a violation of privacy, and free speech and all that jazz.
Now, I don't really trash talk people on my blog. I don't like the majority of celebrities. It could just be I'm not a fan of whatever movie they've been in or whatever, but I normally can't be bothered enough to go through the effort of really trash talking. And thinking now, I don't even think I can trash talk most of them. Aside from calling some of them idiots, most of the stuff I would say would be that I don't like them, their movies/singing sucks, etc. A lot of stuff about them though is media hype (for the most part) which also makes me not get overly excited. I have sooo many better things to do. And so do most of my blogging friends. But well, just in case, I posted this.
I'm also highly amused to see the celebrity fight back. I'm also semi interested to see if the blogger wins against Google... though I have my doubts.
Honestly, I don't think it's an issue of free speech at all - the blogger was revealed because the model was filing a defamation suit against her. Defamation => loss of income => civil courts. I don't think it really applies to most bloggers in general.
ReplyDeleteI think in the case of an actual civil action (which in this case the model withdrew), the model would have to prove that the language used by the blogger led to her losing her job or something.
Mary
The reason I said free speech was because the blogger may try to use/may have tried to use "I have the right to free speech!" She may still in her case against Google lol. Although what are the odds of her winning against Google?
ReplyDeleteMainly I was also amused that the model brought a lawsuit up against the blogger, because as someone in the eye of the media, you should EXPECT to have comments like this because of media coverage and portrayals of other models/aspects of the industry.