Having spent way too much time online, I have to say that complete anonymity isn’t a good thing. People are social primates and we evolved under the conditions that if we did something socially unacceptable the rest of the monkeys would beat the crap out of us and feed us to the next leopard to come up the tree.
I honestly think that a lot of people NEED that social pressure as a gauge for their behaviour. While a certain degree of anonymity is freeing, which is why more people will try a nude beach when vacationing miles away from home and people they know, I think that for many people, with out the possibility of shame, they are without any sort of control or limit on thier behaviour.
Of course suing the ISP is pointless, and like suing the manufacturer of the film stock because the movie it was made into was slanderous. But I’m coming to the opinion that at least in places where the internet is most prevalent, the developed west, the extra freedom provided by complete anonymity is outweighed by the real social and emotional harm done, not just to the targets, but to the people that once they let their inner demons loose on the web, will find it difficult to return to normal social behaviour.
I think it might be better if people had internet ID’s like the old numbered swiss bank account. No one would know who the ID belonged to, but the ID could be penalized for it’s actions. I suppose in the long run you would end up with online law, and online courts for these online ID’s. And that too might better reflect that there is a difference between the virtual and the real, and that real world courts are not well equipped or suited to dealing with most online social infractions.