lawsuit

“The repeal came after eight years of litigation and is apparently triggered by the State’s realization that it had no legitimate defense to at least one of the federal court claims: that Blackbeard’s Law was a constitutionally prohibited ‘Bill of Attainder’ — a bill that targets and harms an...

The plaintiff - Intersal, Inc. argues that, after it spend a decade locating the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), the parties entered into a contract (the 2013 Agreement) to govern the treatment of the digital media and other matters related to the QAR but that the North Carolina...

The infamous pirate Blackbeard was once the scourge of the Atlantic but over 300 years later a different kind of pirate sails North Carolina’s waters. And a case heard at the United States Supreme Court has returned to Raleigh. On February 8th, 2023, filmmaker Frederick Allen of Nautilus...

“After this ruling, and you’re an artist and your painting’s in the North Carolina Museum of Art or you post a photo of a North Carolina lighthouse on your website or you write a piece of music and they’re playing it in a North Carolina museum, the state has every right to take it and infringe...

NC Supreme Court revives lawsuit over Blackbeard’s ship & lost Spanish treasure ship The North Carolina Supreme Court this month gave a shipwreck hunting company from Florida a new day in court in a lawsuit with the North Carolina government over two shipwrecks from the 1700s, one which is...

Supreme Court justices frown on state's public display of pirate ship's salvage Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it was "deeply troubling" that after North Carolina was caught with copyrighted material and agreed to pay a fine, the state legislature enacted "Blackbeard's Law" to convert...

The justices will decide whether an underwater videographer can sue North Carolina for posting his images of the wreckage of a sunken pirate ship. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/us/politics/supreme-court-blackbeard-piracy.html

The complaints specify that DNCR Deputy Secretary Kevin Cherry, as Secretary & Treasurer of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, solicited funds to be used for a commercial tour of QAR artifacts and the making of QAR artifact replicas, which DNCR planned without the...

Intersal contends in its lawsuit that the state breached a contract that gave Intersal some exclusivity to images, video and other renditions of the wreck and its artifacts. The suit also accuses the nonprofit Friends of Queen Anne’s Revenge organization of interfering in the contract. “Our case...

North Carolina claims shipwreck images and video in its custody are N.C. property in intellectual property rights grab. The law passed in 2015 is still on the books. https://nautilusproductions.com/blog/1384-2

The videographer accusing the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the State of North Carolina of copyright infringement regarding images related to the Queen Anne’s Revenge has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s July 2018 decision that...

The conference took place on May 4, 2018 with the stated aim of resolving legal action brought against NC DNCR in 2015 by Intersal, for failure to implement a 2013 Settlement Agreement connected to the Queen Anne's Revenge - Blackbeard shipwreck. Despite requesting the mediation, NC DNCR failed...

A lawsuit that persists in federal court, a documentary filmmaker accuses North Carolina of committing a modern form of treasure looting: using his copyrighted underwater footage without permission. "Pirates come in many forms," attorneys for Fayetteville-based videographer Frederick Allen said...

North Carolina asked the Fourth Circuit on Thursday to dismiss a lower court ruling that said the state pirated stock footage a North Carolina company had shot of the 18th Century pirate ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Nautilus Productions worked with the state to get access to the wreck and has...

In 2013, Allen found out that the state of North Carolina had allegedly been using his videos online without his consent. While the parties entered into a settlement agreement, requiring the State to compensate Allen for the use of the copyrighted material prior to the settlement date, Allen...

After the discovery of Blackbeard's commanding ship, the rescuers and the state came to a mutual understanding and agreement that allowed Intersal to create photos and videos of the wreckage which they could copyright. This was agreed by both parties in 1998. However, in 2015 a new law was...

Intersal, Inc., the Florida-based company which found the wreck of Blackbeard the Pirate's flagship Queen Anne's Revenge ("QAR") in 1996 at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, has filed complaints with the North Carolina Ethics Commission against two North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural...

Like major theft on the high seas, the infringement of copyright is known as "piracy," and is considered a serious crime. U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle has correctly shot down an attempt by North Carolina's Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and others to dismiss a lawsuit...

A video producer who produced video of the excavation of a pirate ship is now suing the State of North Carolina and others for piracy. Nautilus Productions LLC, who served as a videographer for the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck project, is charging copyright infringement and arguing against the...

Intersal, Inc., the Florida-based company which found the wreck of Blackbeard the Pirate's flagship Queen Anne's Revenge ("QAR") in 1996 at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, has filed complaints with the North Carolina Ethics Commission against two North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural...

Fayetteville videographer accuses North Carolina of violating his copyright. Florida treasure hunter also suing for breach of contract. Florida treasure-hunting company Intersal Inc., which in 1996 found Blackbeard’s wrecked Queen Anne’s Revenge just off the North Carolina coast, is continuing...

US State Changes Law To Steal Pirate Video This article could get a bit confusing; it is about the US state of North Carolina changing an anti-piracy law so it could use the internet to copy and share somebody else’s documentary videos… which happen to be about pirates of the nautical variety...

Nearly 300 years ago, the infamous Pirate Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge (QAR), sank off the coast of North Carolina near Beaufort Inlet. A private salvage firm, Intersal, found a cluster of cannons and other artifacts in late 1996 on the seabed near the inlet. State...

It all started back in 1996 when a company named Intersal, Inc., established a few years earlier to “increase knowledge and awareness of America’s rich maritime heritage by researching, locating and excavating valuable historic shipwrecks”, found the remains of Blackbeard’s ship off the North...

The first of two lawsuits which include the State of North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory and other government officials, the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and some of its employees was filed March 21, by Intersal Inc., a Florida-based maritime research and salvage company that...

NC Sued in Federal Court Over Blackbeard's Law Modern day piracy on the Queen Anne's Revenge The owner of Nautilus Productions, a Fayetteville photography company that began documenting the recovery of the wreck after it was discovered in the late 1990s, says the state misused his footage and...

NC Government Overreach on Blackbeard's Shipwreck. Usurpation of Personal and Intellectual Property Rights https://www.facebook.com/garygentileproductions/posts/877764652314337

Battle Over Shipwreck Photos Brews in N.C. "The amendment to G.S. 121-25, if enacted, constitutes a violation of the Contracts Clause, Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution, for starters. 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 (attorney's fees) would also be implicated." Courthouse News...

Controversy Over Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Continues Controversy Over Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Continues “The Friends of the Queen Anne’s Revenge entered into a contract with an independent media company and as part of this contract the spouse of the treasurer of the Friends...

Lawmakers enter legal battle over Blackbeard's ship With the legal battle over the rights to images of Blackbeard's sunken flagship intensifying, lawmakers waded into the fray by taking up legislation aimed at a shipwreck-exploration company suing the state for $8 million. "In Intersal's...