Judge: copyright means public has no right to read Nashville school shooter's writings

[beschizza]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/08/judge-copyright-means-public-has-no-right-to-read-nashville-school-shooters-writings.html

…

[smulder]

[anon65652885]

Exactly the strategy the Prime Minister of New Zealand used when a terrorist shot up a Mosque.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed never to say the name of the Christchurch mosque gunman.

“He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety - that is why you will never hear me mention his name,” Ms Ardern said in an emotional address at New Zealand’s parliament.

The prime minister addressed a special meeting on Tuesday, opening her speech by using the Arabic greeting “Al-Salaam Alaikum”, which in English means “peace be upon you”.

She said: “I implore you, speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless.”

Maddeningly, the article quoting her saying this uses the shooter’s name, so I won’t link it. It’s here, if you take out the spaces: https://www. bbc. com/ news/ world-asia-47620630

[zeiche]

everything can be copyrighted. does this mean the court system just went dark?

[JohnS]

does this mean the court system just went dark?

No, but it may be behind a paywall.

[Jonathan_Mayo]

In the judge’s defense he was out sick with mono when they covered the chapter on Fair Use in school.

[fuzzyfungus]

I’d agree that a media feeding frenzy over the guy’s autobiography and obviously-important-because-he-shot-some-people inner life is deeply unseemly and counterproductive; but (even if that is the noble intention) the means being used to advance that goal seem wildly dangerous and disproportionate.

If “it’s copyrighted” becomes the new “it’s attorney-client work product” for the purpose of keeping matters related to court proceedings secret forever any Berne Convention signatory had better stock up on judicial sharpies (or just get a bunch of wholly blacked-out stationary printed, to save everybody time) because that covers almost everything; as well as being exceptionally likely to cover(and be vigorously asserted about) things like “basically anything produced in discovery that some corporate attorney doesn’t want the press talking about”.

There are some things you just don’t gawk at because you don’t want to be the sort of person who gawks at that sort of stuff; or a provider of attention to that sort of stuff; but you need to be very, very, careful about side effects, especially trivially obvious ones.

[SamSam]

@anon65652885

Exactly the strategy the Prime Minister of New Zealand used when a terrorist some asshole shot up a Mosque.

     

[dark_frog]

I have no interest in reading it. I think it should be available since it was important enough to serve as evidence. I also think “Is it in the public interest for the government be distributing copyrighted works where the copyright is held by the victim’s families?” is a valid question but also an edge case.

[douglas_stuart]

INAL, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how copyright works.

[1000YearBan]

“Some asshole” is also acceptable

[KathyPartdeux]

“MNPD Police Chief John Drake said Hale was under care for an emotional disorder and had legally purchased seven firearms, including three recovered from the shooting scene, between October 2020 and June 2022”

Another AR-15 being used in a mass shooting by someone who shouldn’t be allowed to own guns. Though no one should be allowed to own an assault weapon.

[politeruin]

Need to roll this out again, i think…

Charlie Brooker's Newswipe 25/03/09