Wow, this is some clever legal shit, if I'm grokking it right. And I might be grokking it wrong, so straighten me out if I'm mistaken, please.

A wingnut kills six people at a school, and gets shot dead by cops. As is the style with these things, he leaves behind journals full of hate and wingnuttery. Now, here's where it gets weird: The killer's parents, being decent people, transfer the killer's entire estate, including the writings, to the victims' families, and they go to court asserting that any release of the wingnut writings would violate their copyright, as owners of the estate. The judge agrees, so the journals won't be published, and haters won't get the hate fuel they yearn for.

I ain't sure whether it's right in principle — gets complicated, if you think about the possible precedent. But dang me, it is clever, and if it smothers a dead madman's free speech rights, well, guess I'm OK with that.