On Monday, a Manhattan judge rules that a blogger cannot hide behind a web of anonymity while flinging insults at another individual. The ruling orders Google to turn over the identity of an anonymous blogger who devoted an entire blog entitled "Skanks in NYC" to defame model Liskula Cohen.

Once Ms. Cohen learns the identity of her online attacker, which may happen as early as today, she can then serve the blogger with a defamation lawsuit.

The blog in question was set up through Google's blogging platform, Blogger.com, last yar. It included fashion shots of Cohen with disparaging captions using the words "ho", "whoring", and "skank."

The blogger had argued that these remarks were "non-actionable opinion and/or hyperbole" in an attempt to remain anonymous.

Cohen, 27, said yesterday::

"I really hope it's not somebody I know. I'm a human being. I bleed. I have feelings. When I saw that blog, it was awful. All I can say for this person is, I really truly hope that they have more in their life than this."

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden wrote in her decision:

"The thrust of the blog is that [Cohen] is a sexually promiscuous woman. That included references to Cohen as "whoring" and "ready to engage in oral sexual activity."

The judge ruled that as such, she is entitled in insist in a defamation lawsuit that the blogger's statements are false and damaging, and that Google has to provide her with the name of the blogger in order to do so.

Cohen's lawyer, Steven Wagner, hopes the decision sends a message to those who would use the anonymity of the Internet for defamations

"The rules for defamation on the Web -- for actual reality as well as virtual reality -- are the same. The Internet is not a free-for-all."

A lawyer for the blogger warned, however, that a real free-for-all will occur in the court system if everyone who has ever been insulted online decides to take their complaint before a judge:

"The floodgates would be opened if you tried to regulate these very broad, common insults and invective on the Internet. You can be really, really mean to people -- you just can't lie about a set of facts that are provable as lies, and that you knew or recklessly disregarded the truth of," said Anne Salisbury.