Cynthia Moreno Guest Lecture to My Internet Law Course

By Eric Goldman

Internet Law is blessed with some fantastic teaching cases, including the modern classic, Moreno v. Hanford Sentinel. Read the Ode to Coalinga that started it all.

Cynthia works in Sacramento–about 2 hours from SCU–so in November 2012 I invited her to guest-lecture at my Internet Law course. I learned so much from the visit! Some of the more interesting details:

* she had deliberately set her MySpace account as “private,” meaning that only her friends (about 300 people) could see her post. That was not clear from the court opinion.

* she pursued multiple layers of administrative remedies before going to court. Her main goal was to redress the principal’s conduct, not to generate cash. She interviewed dozens of attorneys before finding one who would take her case. Her attorney wasn’t on contingency fee.

* she doesn’t regret her post.

* the incident has had continuing deleterious effects on her younger sister.

* she has taken a job as a television personality at Univision.

Some of the materials we generated in connection with her visit:

* Video (synced with her slides) of her guest lecture (if that link doesn’t work, try this one, item #32).

* Audio of her guest lecture (item #33)

* Her detailed PowerPoint slides

* Photos (the set)

me, Cynthia, her mom Maria

guest lecturing

view of the classroom during her guest lecture

the original newspaper with her essay

the subsequent newspaper with letters to the editor, mostly excoriating her

[Email me if you want the higher-res versions of any photo].