RJLF Helps Revoke Blackbeard’s Law in Captivating Copyright Dispute
Adam Adler
Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP (RJLF) helped secure the repeal of North Carolina’s “Blackbeard’s Law” on behalf of Rick Allen, famed underwater photographer, videographer, and documentarian of Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), in a quest to protect Allen’s copyrights of his prized work.
Over the last two decades, Allen has spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars documenting the excavation and recovery of QAR, the infamous pirate ship that was captained by the notorious English pirate Edward Teach, commonly known as Blackbeard. In 2015, North Carolina enacted Blackbeard's Law, legislation that deemed all of Allen’s footage to be in the public domain, allowing it to be used freely by anyone without the need for a license or permission.
Working on behalf of Allen, RJLF lawyer Adam Adler, with co-counsel, filed a Second Amended Complaint in February 2023. Following the review of the Second Amended Complaint and the opposition to the state's motion to dismiss the complaint, North Carolina repealed the law, marking a long-awaited victory for Allen.
“After eight years, North Carolina has finally acknowledged that Blackbeard’s Law was unfair, unjust, and improper.”
The first time through the courts, the operative complaint asserted causes of actions for, principally, Copyright Infringement and violations of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. North Carolina claimed sovereign immunity. Allen argued that Congress abrogated immunity through the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA).
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which held that CRCA was not constitutional with respect to the kind of abrogation under consideration. The case was subsequently remanded to the district court, where Allen successfully sought and obtained permission to amend the complaint to account for recent changes in the law, and to assert additional causes of actions relating to Blackbeard’s Law and Defendants’ unlawful acts.
RJLF joined Allen’s legal team of Olive and Olive P.A. and the Poe Law Firm, PLLC after the Supreme Court decision. The team filed the Second Amended Complaint in early February 2023, which challenged Blackbeard’s Law and the policies underlying the law as an illegal Bill of Attainder, an unlawful ex post facto law, and a constitutionally prohibited impairment of contract. The Second Amended Complaint further alleged that Defendants violated the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution and the Copyright Act.
After reviewing the Second Amended Complaint and Allen’s opposition to the state’s motion to dismiss the complaint, North Carolina finally repealed Blackbeard’s Law.
The case is Frederick L. Allen and Nautilus Productions, LLC v. Roy Cooper, Governor of The State Of North Carolina, et al, U.S. District Court Eastern District of North Carolina, case no. 5:15-cv-627.