By Jonathan Brophy 
In California, a myspace.com user has no expectation of privacy for items posted on their myspace page. In a recent California Court of Appeals decision, Moreno v. Hanford Sentinel, Inc., the Fifth Appellate District concluded that a myspace user cannot state a claim for invasion of privacy against a person who resubmits a myspace article to a newspaper for republication.
In Moreno, a Berkeley college student, Cynthia Moreno, posted "An Ode to Coalinga" on her myspace page. The Ode began, "the older I get, the more I realize how much I despise Coalinga" and then proceeds to make a number of extremely negative comments about Coalinga and its inhabitants. Cynthia's parents and sister still lived in Coalinga at the time.
After being given to the editor of the local newspaper, the Ode was published in the Letters to the Editor section of the Coalinga Record. The Ode was attributed to Cynthia, using her full name. Cynthia had not stated her last name in her online journal. The community reacted violently to the publication of the Ode. The Moreno family received death threats and a shot was fired at the family home, forcing the family to move out of Coalinga. Due to severe losses, Cynthia's father closed the 20-year-old family business.
Ultimately, the Court rejected the claim of the Morenos that they could bring a cause of action for invasion of privacy because no one could have an expectation of privacy for a myspace posting.