N.C. Acting Like Pirates, Alleges Videographer's Complaint

North Carolina acted much like the pirate Blackbeard in its theft of documentary footage shot of Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, documentarian Rick Allen told the U.S. District Court for the Eastern North Carolina in an amended complaint Wednesday (docket 5:15-cv-627). Plaintiff Allen sued the state for copyright infringement for its use of his footage of the ship in various tourism promotions, a case the Supreme Court ultimately rejected in 2020. In his amended complaint, Allen is targeting the state's Blackbeard's Law, which was enacted in 2015 and puts all of his work regarding the ship into public domain without compensating him. "Adding insult to the no compensation injury, Defendants passed Blackbeard’s Law without a modicum of notice or opportunity to be heard," said Allen. "It is a garish trespass on the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution." The suit asks the court for a declaratory judgment that Blackbeard’s Law is unconstitutional, an order enjoining state officials from further copyright infringements, and for the state to be ordered to compensate him. Defendants include Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and Attorney General Josh Stein (D). The Attorney General's Office didn't comment Thursday.