Court: MySpace posts aren't private

Here's an interesting tale:

A college student posted an "ode" on her MySpace page, blasting her hometown of Coalinga, Calif. The local high school principal found it and sent a copy of it to the editor of the Coalinga Record where it was published as a letter to the editor. (The post was online for six days; by the time it was published in the paper, it had been removed.) The author's family said they were forced to move out of town, and sued the editor, the paper and the paper's parent company, Lee Enterprises. Lee was dismissed from the suit; last week the court ruled publishing the "letter" was not an invasion of privacy. The family's emotional distress complaints will go before jurors.

It should also raise a question: Why was a MySpace blog post submitted by a third party ever published in the paper as a letter?

Here's the ruling on Moreno v. Hanford Sentinel Inc.

(Via e-mail)