# So there's a video of the Texas church massacre **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-theres-a-video-of-the-texas-church-massacre/801554 "2017-11-13T20:39:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-theres-a-video-of-the-texas-church-massacre/801554/41 "2017-11-15T06:09:13Z")
But can the Legislature expropriate private property by means of an FOI law? If a private citizen owns the copyright, and then it comes under government control and anyone can get it by FOI, isn’t that an expropriation of the private citizen’s copyright, without compensation? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-theres-a-video-of-the-texas-church-massacre/801554/42 "2017-11-15T09:25:23Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > But can the Legislature expropriate private property by means of an FOI law? If a private citizen owns the copyright, and then it comes under government control and anyone can get it by FOI, isn’t that an expropriation of the private citizen’s copyright, without compensation? I don’t think the citizen has lost their copyright to the video. They could still sue, and probably win, if someone tried to use the video without their permission and outside of the fair use exception. So, copyright is still intact, but it’s possible that third parties can obtain copies of the video via the Texas Public Information Act (not certain about that though). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-theres-a-video-of-the-texas-church-massacre/801554/43 "2017-11-15T15:18:01Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > IANAL (obviously) but I think the requirement to share the “property” comes in the form of FOIA-style laws that require the government to turn over records. This is an explanation of TX’s law: [http://foift.org/resources/texas-public-information-act/](http://foift.org/resources/texas-public-information-act/) and [here is the AG’s handbook on the issue](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/og/publicinfo_hb.pdf). I’m not going to take the time right now to read through it and try to figure out if evidence of a crime for which there’s no realistic expectation of prosecution (because the suspect is dead) can be withheld or not. As a general matter, only materials created by the state or its subdivisions are public records. Records seized from private parties by an agency arguably become public records. However, in most states the law makes records of active criminal investigations specifically exempt from the public record. There’s an interesting discussion [here](http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Commonwealth/out/321CD16_11-17-16.pdf), where a Pennsylvania court held that the cops didn’t have to turn over a casino’s surveillance video because it had only become a “record” of the state in the course of a criminal investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-theres-a-video-of-the-texas-church-massacre/801554/44 "2017-11-15T17:24:10Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t think the citizen has lost their copyright to the video. They could still sue, and probably win, if someone tried to use the video without their permission and outside of the fair use exception. So, copyright is still intact, but it’s possible that third parties can obtain copies of the video via the Texas Public Information Act (not certain about that though). Just making copies of a video without the permission of the copyright owner is normally a breach of copyright. Fair use comes into play later. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-theres-a-video-of-the-texas-church-massacre/801554.md?page=2)