When in the course of really trivial events

My old friend Matt Hartley, who recently made the move from the Globe and Mail to the Financial Post, has chronicled the latest chapter in the story of that Liskula Cohen, the model who sued Google. Last week, the New York Supreme Court ordered Google to reveal the identity of a blogger who had said a bunch of mean things about Cohen through an anonymous account on Google’s Blogger service. Now the blogger, who turned out to be a fashion student named Rosemary Port, is also suing Google for violating her privacy.

Mind you, it doesn’t look like she’s got much of a shot at winning; as Hartley explains, “[Google's] stated policy is to provide authorities with personal information on its users when ordered to by a court.” Google’s hands were tied, and it doesn’t seem like Port should have had any reason to believe they would behave any differently.

Now, if you don’t care about the details of a fashion industry feud, then I don’t blame you. But I did like what Port’s attorney, a fellow named Salvatore Strazzullo, had to say about the case:

“I’m ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court. Our Founding Fathers wrote ‘The Federalist Papers’ under pseudonyms. Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn’t that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?”

That’s some pretty terrific hyperbole, isn’t it? Comparing a fashion student with a blog and a grudge to the Founding Fathers? They’re both pretty much the same, right? If Port hadn’t started a blog, her entire country would probably still be under the thumb of the hated British! Also, remember the time Alexander Hamilton called Aaron Burr a skank?

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