Violations of Privacy

California just issued an interesting ruling in Moreno v. Hanford Sentinel over the question of privacy. At issue in this case was whether a psuedo-annonymous letter posted on myspace could be reprinted without the author's consent in a newspaper with her identity revealed. Here, Cynthia Moreno wrote a poem called "An ode to Coalinga" on her Myspace page. Her former high school principal somehow found it and had it published in the Letters to the Editor section, identifying Moreno's full name. The poem, which was less than flattering, caused residents to boycot Moreno's father's business which was forced to shut down. The court here ruled that her photo attached to the original posting prevented the posting from being anonymous. They also allowed the intentional inflection of emotional distress claim to proceed, stating that "a jury should determine whether the alleged conduct was outrageous."