Model-Bashing Blogger Blasts Google

A blogger who called a magazine cover model offensive names on a Web site is suing Google, saying the Web giant failed to protect her right to privacy.

Rosemary Port told the New York Daily News in Sunday editions that she's angry that Google unmasked her after a Manhattan judge forced the company to reveal her identity.

Google says users agree to a privacy policy that allows the company to share personal information if required by a legal action.

Port, a 29-year-old fashion student, was identified as the author of a site on Google's Blogger.com that had published anonymous remarks about Vogue cover model Liskula Cohen's hygiene and sexual habits.

According to the Daily News, the two were acquainted through the New York fashion scene and became at odds after Cohen reportedly badmouthed Port to her ex-boyfriend.

In her blog, Port called Cohen a "psychotic, lying whore" among other things.

Cohen sued to have Port identified, arguing that the comments on the site were defamatory.

Port's initial argument - made through Google's attorneys - held that blogs "serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting" but shouldn't be regarded as fact.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge disagreed, forcing Google to release her identity. Now Port is set to sue the company for $15 million, charging Google with breaching its "fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity," attorney Salvatore Strazzullo told the Daily News.

"I feel proud to live in a country where you're not persecuted for your opinions," Port said. "That right has to be protected.