Legal News

Reposting of MySpace rant in newspaper not invasion of privacy

By Richard Binder

Cynthia Moreno posted an unflattering "ode" to her hometown and its inhabitants on her MySpace page while she was a student at UC Berkeley.  The posting, meant apparently only for Ms. Moreno's friends, got picked up her hometown newspaper, resulting in a deluge of hate mail and death threats.  The abuse got to be too much for Moreno and her family, who moved away.  They responded by suing the newspaper and its publishers for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Last Thursday a Fresno, Calif.-based appellate court said Moreno had no grounds even if her post was meant for a limited audience.  "The facts contained in the article were not private," 5th District Court of Appeal Justice Bert Levy wrote. "Rather, once posted on myspace.com, this article was available to anyone with Internet access." Presiding Justice James Ardaiz and Justice Gene Gomes concurred.

The justices gave the Moreno family a partial break by ruling that their emotional distress complaints should go before jurors.

Click these for details.  And click here for a blogger's take on why going before a jury to rule on intentional emotional distress is bad law. (h/t to Eric at Popehat.com.) 

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 06, 2009 (boomark / email).