Anonymous Bloggers- What Are Your Rights?

For the last several days, I’ve been following new developments in the case of a formerly anonymous blogger, Rosemary Port who wrote a blog called “Skanks of NYC” in which she made personal written attacks on a model she knew.  Recently, the New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of the model who was trying to force Google to disclose the email address of the anonymous blogger.  Rosemary plans to sue, however, her identity has already been exposed.

Free speech advocates are up in arms for good reason.  Clearly this will set the precedent of how future cases will be ruled on reagarding information people post online with the intent that it is anonymous.  If companies like Google can legally be forced to disclose and identify bloggers, what is next?  The other side of the argument is that there are limits to what the First Amendment covers and that lying and defaming someone intentionally should not be protected.

I follow many bloggers who are not anonymous and some that are.  What are your thoughts?  Weigh in and tell me, should bloggers be allowed to remain anonymous?  If you are an anonymous blogger, how will this case affect what you write and whether or not you choose to remain anonymous?