Tasteless, but under the First Amendment that band's name was protected. To press advocates, the tapes have the status of public documents. Paulson, a journalist and lawyer, noted that if either Klebold or Harris had survived, the videotape would be introduced in open court at the trial. The future repackaging of the Columbine tapes is irrelevant to those who view this as a freedom of information question. Concerns about ugly art are simply not a legitimate question in our society,'' Paulson said.
People create ugly art every day, and they have a right to create ugly art.
They have a right to offend under our system. The real question is whether the press and public have a legal right to a document detailing facts behind this crime.'' Making the Columbine tapes public could have positive results impossible to foresee. Law-enforcement officials and journalists who opposed publishing the text of the Unabomber's manuscript, saying it was wrong to give in to the demands of a killer, concede the result was to cause Theodore Kaczynski's brother to come forward and identify him. Psychologists believe the extensive Columbine tapes offer a rare glimpse into the mind of a sociopath that could help understand and profile future cases. While the release of the tapes is anticipated in January, Denver television executives are struggling with difficult questions of whether and how much to broadcast.