Nathan,
At the same time, I don’t see a legal or moral “right” to anonymity on the ‘net, and in any case there are ways of remaining anonymous without resorting to faking completely different personalities. In fact, this doesn’t actually seem to be the only, or even the main, issue here (see below).
You don’t have an explicit right, but right now a de facto one exists. It would be injurious to free speech, among other rights, if there were a federal mandate to end anonymity and pseudo-anonymity. In other words, it would be bad for the public liberty if the prosecutor gets his way because it would empower the state without much public gain.
Why should Lori Drew not be prosecuted for violating both the letter and the spirit of an agreement that she willingly signed? Her crime was not only failing to provide truthful ID–something that MySpace required of her–but also in actually harassing and causing harm to a person–two things also prohibited by the MySpace Terms of Service. Accordingly, it seems to me that if this is the point upon which she is being prosecuted, it’s a very good one–and thus I must disagree with your statement that this is a bad case making bad law.
Why would you want to use federal criminal law to enforce a civil contract? Her use of MySpace was in violation of their Terms of Service, and thus they should sue the hell out of her instead of getting the feds involved. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer that criminal law generally never intersect with contractual agreements. Yes, she might be able to be prosecuted under this agreement, but that doesn’t mean that the law that she is being prosecuted under is a good one, especially since companies like MySpace have the legal muscle to enforce their ToS agreements against users like Drew with powerful ramifications for a lone individual.
(A brief aside about guns, the usual libertarian position is one I disagree with, just as I am disagreeing with what seems to be the usual libertarian position on this issue and this case.)
The libertarian position here is that you are taking a bazooka to swat a fly. Yes, you will revel in the fly’s death, but you will also be out a chunk of your home.
