10/26/2026
A recent ruling in Forum on Open Access to Government Records v. Dallas County Historical Foundation revisits one of copyright’s thorniest questions: what happens when a home movie becomes the defining record of a national tragedy? Neville Johnson, Douglas Johnson, and Hunter Litterio explore originality, the merger doctrine, and the First Amendment stakes of owning footage of historical events, from JFK to 9/11 to the Boston Marathon bombing.
Read the full article:
If the adage is true that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” then the Zapruder film – the 26-second home movie that caught the assassination of President John F. Kennedy – at 480 frames, is worth 480,000 words. Given the attention and writing devoted to it, this may be a woeful underesti...
