13 Amici Filed with SCOTUS Supporting Nautilus’ Blackbeard Copyright Lawsuit
A total
of thirteen briefs were filed
Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Rick Allen and Nautilus
Productions in their case against the State of North Carolina, the N.C.
Department of Natural & Cultural Resources and the Friends of Queen
Anne’s Revenge nonprofit, captioned Allen v. Cooper (No. 18-877).
These
briefs were authored or joined by dozens
of legal experts and associations, and thousands of corporations,
including; The Chamber of Commerce of the United States & The Copyright
Alliance, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (The Wall Street Journal), Oracle America,
Inc., Recording Industry Association of America, American
Association of Independent Music, and National Music Publishers’ Association, The
Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Software
& Information Industry Association, Washington Legal Foundation, American
Society of Media Photographers, National Press Photographers Association, Public
Law Scholars, Ralph Oman (former U.S. Register of Copyrights), Law Professors, and
the Constitutional Accountability Center. No briefs were filed in support of
the State of North Carolina.
“The
Petitioners are gratified to see this broad, distinguished coalition joining
voice to support reversal of the 4th Circuit ruling. Together
these amici underline the depth and breadth of the concerns that led
Congress to enact the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) so that States
could properly be held liable for their mounting copyright infringement.”
In
2015, according to the complaint filed in Federal court, North Carolina pirated
footage of Blackbeard flagship, the Queen
Anne’s Revenge. Then North Carolina passed “Blackbeard’s Law” to justify
that piracy. Rick Allen of Nautilus Productions is the victim of that piracy
and is taking his case to the Supreme Court of the United States. The issue, whether
Congress validly abrogated state sovereign immunity via the Copyright Remedy
Clarification Act in providing remedies for authors of original expression
whose federal copyrights are infringed by states. North Carolina claims it has
sovereign immunity in copyright and therefore is above the law and cannot be
sued.
Nautilus
Productions LLC is represented by Derek Shaffer and Todd
Anten of Quinn Emanuel, Susan Freya Olive
and David McKenzie of Olive and Olive, P.A.
and Joe Poe of the Poe
Law Firm, PLLC.
