Question

Assignment #4-Chapter 8-Following a visit to her hometown of Coalinga, Cynthia wrote "An Ode to Coalinga" (Ode) and posted it in her online journal on MySpace. com. Her last name did not appear online. Her page included her picture. The Ode opens with "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. Six days later, Cynthia removed the Ode from her journal. At the time, Cynthia was a student at UC Berkeley, and her parents and sister were living in Coalinga. The Coalinga High School principal, Roger Campbell, submitted the Ode to the local newspaper, the Coalinga Record, and it was published in the Letters to the Editor section, using Cynthia's full name. The community reacted violently to the Ode, forcing the family to close its business and move. Cynthia and her family sued Campbell and the newpaper on the right-of-privacy theory of public disclosure of private facts. What are the essential element of this theory? Was Cynthia and her family's right of privacy violated? BecInhaHer dery CloseEdibl

Answer 1

The essential elements of the right of privacy theory of public disclosure of private facts are as follows:

• The defendant(the principal) publicized a matter regarding the private life of the plaintiff -Here the principal of the Coalinga High school submitted the ode to the local newspaper and made the ode public.

• The publicized matter would be highly offensive to a reasonable person-The ode that contained many negative comments about Coalinga ,met with severe backlash from the community and eventually led the family to close its business and move from Coalinga.

• It is not of a legitimate concern to the public-The ode that was posted on Myspace.com, was a private affair of Cynthia and is personal information to her.Thus ,this information is not of any legitimate concern to the public of Coalinga.

  All the necessary elements hold true in this case.Hence,the right of privacy of Cynthia and her family is violated and there is invasion of privacy by Campbell,the school principal.Thus,Cynthia has every right to sue Campbell and the newspaper agency and recover necessary damages from them.