Punch the name Liskula Cohen into Google and the search engine turns up more than 130,000 hits.
Unfortunately for the Canadian-born fashion model, thousands of those results relate to offensive postings made about her by an anonymous cyber bully on a now defunct blog called "Skanks of NYC."
Now, after emerging victorious from a high-profile lawsuit against Google Inc., she knows the identity of that formerly anonymous blogger, and can begin planning her next move.
On Tuesday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ordered Google to hand over the computer IP address and email address of the blogger to Ms. Cohen's lawyers.
Judge Madden said Ms. Cohen was entitled to confront the person who posted the defamatory comments.
In January, the 37-year-old Ms. Cohen sued Google after the search engine giant declined to provide her with the identity of the blogger who made five posts on the "Skanks of NYC" blog in August of 2008.
Among the posts were photos of the 5-foot-10 blonde Ms. Cohen in sexually suggestive positions with an unidentified male, as well as other entries which described her as a "skanky ho."
During an appearance on Good Morning America yesterday, Ms. Cohen said she now knows the blogger is a female acquaintance she had met at parties in New York. However, she has not publicly revealed the blogger's identity.
Ms. Cohen, who appeared on the cover of such magazines as Australian Vogue, W and Flare in the early 1990s, told the U. S. television show she contacted the woman and has forgiven her.
Ms. Cohen's lawyer, Steven Wagner, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Although Ms. Cohen's lawsuit received widespread global attention because of its connection to Google, such cases are not uncommon online, where users will often push the boundaries of free speech behind a perceived curtain of anonymity.
"Requiring an intermediary, whether it's an ISP [Internet service provider] or a search engine, to disclose the information they have off of an IP address or an email address is pretty common," said Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law.
"But I think it happens a bit behind the scenes ... and sometimes it takes these higher-profile cases for people to better understand that, where required, intermediaries will disclose whatever information they have and that veil of anonymity that some people think they have isn't quite as strong as they think."
Mr. Geist said both Canadian and U. S. courts have the power to order Web companies to disclose information about their users in certain cases involving copyright, defamation and regulatory issues. However, a judge may choose not to force a Web company to disclose a user's information when doing so would violate privacy laws.
Google declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, opting instead to issue a brief statement saying the company sympathizes with anyone who winds up the victim of cyber bullying.
"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," the company said. "If content is found by a court to be defamatory, we will of course remove it immediately."
Google will only remove defamatory material from Blogger when "the material has been found to be defamatory by a court, as evidenced by a court order," according to Blogger's terms of service.
Google purchased Blogger's parent company Pyra Labs for an undisclosed amount in 2003.
