Following the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, in which the shooter was killed by responding police officers, the shooter's parents inherited the shooter's copyright interest in various writings (including the shooter's manifesto). They then assigned it "to a trust to be held for the benefit of the Covenant Parents' children," and the Covenant Parents argued that this should keep the writings from being released. The trial court agreed, but yesterday's Tennessee Court of Appeals opinion in Brewer v. Metro. Gov't of Nashville (Judge Kristi Davis, joined by Judges John McClarty and Thomas Frierson) basically rejected the copyright argument for nondisclosure:
The trial court and the Parents … conflate the concept of access for inspection [which wouldn't itself implicate the Copyright Act -EV] with reproduction and display [which might potentially implicate the Act, subject to the fair use defense -EV]. Indeed, the TPRA requires that "[a]ll state, county and municipal records shall, at all times during business hours, which for public hospitals shall be during the business hours of their administrative offices, be open for personal inspection by any citizen of this state …"
We interpret the TPRA broadly to promote access to the records, in keeping with the statutory purpose. Considering this statutory purpose, we can construe the TPRA in such a way that does not require Metro to publicly display its file. Nor need Metro distribute the records to the public; rather, Metro need only allow Petitioners access for personal inspection. Although the Act protects the means by which copyrighted material may be obtained, the Act itself does not inure total confidentiality and secrecy.
As another state court confronted with this issue noted, "[o]ne could certainly disclose a record without either reproducing or distributing the same record." Nat'l Council on Tchr. Quality v. Curators of Univ. of Mo. (Mo. Ct. App. 2014); see also Ali v. Phila. City Plan. Comm'n (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2015) ("[N]ot every disclosure of copyrighted material without the owner's consent violates the Copyright Act."). By the same token, Metro may allow access to the records for personal inspection without itself copying, displaying, or publishing the records. This result "allow[s] the public to scrutinize [Metro's] reliance on or consideration of the copyrighted material[,]" thus furthering the purposes of the TPRA.
