Google Forced to Reveal Identity of Blogger

A New York court today ordered Google to reveal the identity of a blogger, following a lawsuit brought forth by a Canadian model. The lawsuit claimed that she could not sue the blogger for defamation and damaging comments if she didn't know the identity of the blogger responsible for the damaging posts.

Google issued this statement in regards to the judgment: “We sympathize with anyone who may be the victim of cyberbullying. We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order. If content is found by a court to be defamatory, we will of course remove it immediately.”

So this tells me Google is reticent to rat us out; but still in the end, they like us, are subject to the rules of the courts.

If courts start handing out judgments of this kind who's to say that politicians, foreign nations or anybody with a little bit of a reason can't file the same complaint and have my identity revealed?

While this isn't exactly a landmark judgment it certainly sets a dangerous precedent for those of us who use this platform to express our opinions and beliefs that are not always in line with the mainstream. On the other hand, victims of cyberbullying should be allowed to face their bullies and have their day in court.

Either way, this judgment scares me a little.

(quote from the Globe and Mail)

The world according to me (dec 12 2008)

Ecuador: Defaulting on debts owed to their own people is okay? Ecuador says that it is fighting foreign monsters as it decides to defaults on 2012 bonds... Good jobs Ecuador, how many of those bonds were bought by your own citizens?

US/CUBA: Portugal decides to take in detainees from Guantanamo. The US has hailed this as a great idea as they slowly move towards closing this Human Rights black hole, but now they are also saying the closure, set for January 20th 2009, will have to wait. It will have to wait because the US is all of a sudden concerned that the current prisoners might not be treated humanely in other countries... my question is: Were they treated humanely in Guantanamo?

Tibet: Sovereign leaders are not allowed to speak with the Dalai Lama. China has stated their discontent in the face of recent meetings between the French Prime Minister, the Polish Government and the Dalai Lama. China seems to think that meeting with the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader also strengthens his position as a leader in exile. Good job China, just cause your big... doesn't mean you're the boss.

Cuba (as always) : Here's a kind of not really well researched but still interesting enough article on the realities of life as a counter-revolutionary in Cuba. Read it and learn people, then go check out Generation Y and all of Yoani's links on my blogroll.

Canada : I decided to google the question: Does Canada suck... here's what I found out from yahoo answers : No!

That's about it for tonight... I'm more then a little drunk sitting at the pub... so I'll probably post more when I can actually type. Have a great weekend everyone!

Muchacho Enfermo