Parents sue over reposted MySpace post
Local Family Seeking Law Suit Over Reprinted MySpace Journal Entry:
Apparently some people still don’t get it that if youj post something anywhere on the internet that it might come back to bite you in the ass�
12/13/2006 - A local family claims the Coalinga High School principal went too far when he shared with others what a former student was writing on her Myspace.com page. This case could come down to what kind of privacy you can expect on the internet.
One young woman and her family wants the court to clear the way for a lawsuit after they say some sensitive on-line material sparked major backlash from their hometown.
Cynthia Moreno’s journal on Myspace.com started with the words “the older I get…The more I realize how much I despise Coalinga.” The 700 word online entry, called “An Ode to Coalinga” eventually made it into the local newspaper. That was more than a year ago and people in the small Fresno County town say they haven’t forgotten about it.
John Albrecht, Coalinga teacher says, “I thought it was very immature and I thought it was very wrong. She really disrespected any friend she ever had here.”
But Moreno says she never wanted the critical words to leave her myspace web page and she’s trying to take the Coalinga-Huron Unified School District to court. According to court documents, Moreno accuses her former principal at Coalinga High School of distributing her controversial comments to students, teachers and the newspaper.
Moreno was a student at UC Berkeley at the time, but says the backlash in Coalinga included death threats and harassment of her younger sister, who was still attending Coalinga High School.
Moreno’s attorney says the uproar eventually forced her entire family to move out of town and he says sharing Moreno’s myspace journal without her permission amounted to an invasion of privacy.
And personal responsibility dies another death. Instead of teaching their daughter that her actions have repercussions Cynthia Moreno’s parents sue for an imaginary invasion of privacy. When you post something, anything, on the internet, whether it be an e-mail or MySpace blog entry, assume that the whole world can read it. Because sometimes they will.
3 opinions for Parents sue over reposted MySpace post
dave
Dec 18, 2006 at 10:41 pm
yeah - i see what you mean. But is it also a copyright issue? Who has the rights to reprint and redistribute the complete “ode”? I don’t know myspace - just visit when I’m bored to explore different music. Who owns the text?
I suspect it’s myspace with some rights left to the author. Whoever it is - I just BET the school didn’t seek permission to reproduce the work.
While there is a large element of idiocy and naivity present in the student/family - you can’t assume that everything on the ‘net is creative commons or public domain. This goes for text as well as graphics.
Officer Fuhrman
Dec 19, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Yeah it’s definitely a copyright issue. Myspace blog posts are completely copyrighted by the owner of the account. If you post copyrighted material in your Myspace blog or profile, they’ll close your account when the copyright owner complains.
She has grounds for a copyright infringement lawsuit if they reproduced it without asking her permission.
travis
Jan 3, 2007 at 4:29 am
it may be infringement it may be fair use however its certainly not black and white and the principal should have known better. Just because you put it on the internet does not make it public domain. Go start xeroxing the digital copy of the washingtonpost editorial and pass it around
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