Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge

Copyright - 4th Cir.: Case-by-case theory of sovereign immunity will have to wait another day Allen discovered that his work had been uploaded to an NC-operated YouTube channel and onto other social media platforms. Two years later, the State formally commandeered the footage for itself by enacting a statute, widely referred to as Blackbeard’s Law , that declared all photographs or video recordings of any “derelict vessel or shipwreck” to be considered public records. READ MORE #piracy #NorthCarolina #copyright #NautilusProductions #Blackbeard #QueenAnnesRevenge #DNCR

Sponsor of "Blackbeard's Law" charged with DWI, Aide Charged with Arson October 28, 2025 : Senator Norman Sanderson , of Arapahoe, North Carolina, a well-known Republican representing Carteret, Chowan, Halifax, Hyde, Martin, Pamlico, Warren, and Washington counties, was arrested by police for driving while impaired (DWI) . According to court documents, the 74-year-old senator’s blood alcohol level was 0.16, which is twice the legal limit in North Carolina. In 2015 Sanderson "amended an otherwise uneventful bill to add new language stating that all footage and photographs of shipwrecks held by state agencies are public property" - later nicknamed " Blackbeard's Law. " Also, his legislative assistant, 38 year old Diane Cook, has been arrested and charged with first-degree arson after authorities accused her of intentionally setting a Raleigh home on fire while two people were inside. Investigators say Cook “willfully” and “maliciously” set the b...

Avast! Fayetteville Man Continues Lawsuit Against State Over Footage of Blackbeard’s Ship  Videographer Rick Allen says North Carolina illegally copied his work without permission or payment. More than a decade later, he’s still trying to get paid.  READ STORY #artsandentertainment #piracy #northcarolina #shipwreck #shipwrecklaw #maritimeheritage #Pirates #NautilusProductions #Blackbeard #Documentary #StockFootage #Privateer #Archaeology #EdwardThache #copyright #QueenAnnesRevenge #McCrory #history #FriendsofQAR #NCDNCR #BlackbeardsLaw #NCFilm #Blackbeard300 #IntellectualProperty #lawsuit #SovereignImmunity #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt

Blackbeard Filmmaker Fires Retort in Shipwreck Copyright Dispute! Rarely is state piracy as blatant as in the case of Blackbeard’s Law—a North Carolina statute that targeted videographer Rick Allen’s unique footage of Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge . The statute—admittedly aimed at Allen’s work—claimed that the state could freely use, copy, and distribute Allen’s artistic work without compensating him. After being sued, North Carolina amended its statute, but continued its piratical claims and its use of Allen’s work. It then tried to get Allen’s lawsuit kicked out of court. That attempt failed last August, when U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle determined Allen’s federal lawsuit against the state could proceed. He did so, in large part, by applying a legal principle the state previously conceded was correct. Still trying to delay the inevitable, the state appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4 th Circuit. Now, Allen has responded. In A...

Blackbeard's Crew Meets The Noose ! March 12, 1719: Blackbeard's pirate associates are tried in Williamsburg, VA. Records indicate that one is acquitted, one is pardoned and the other 14 pirates are hanged. Of the two who escaped the gallows, Samuel Odel proved that he had participated in the bloody fight with Virginia troops out of necessity and was only a guest at a drinking party on Thache's ship and not a pirate. The other, Israel Hands, was not present at the fight. He cla imed that during a drinking session Blackbeard had shot him in the knee, and that he was still covered by the royal pardon. Hands then testified against corrupt North Carolina officials, including Tobias Knight, the Secretary of North Carolina under Governor Charles Eden, with whom Thache had consorted. The bodies of the remaining pirates were left to rot in gibbets every half mile along Williamsburg's Capitol Landing Road. Representative Image. READ MORE #artsandentertainment #pi...

Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Project Images! Looking for iconic images from the Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project? Nautilus Productions LLC has exactly what your looking for! Cannons, cannon balls, rum bottles, pewter plates, navigational instruments, underwater archaeologists, the QAR lab - it's all here on our shipwreck image page . Take a 300 year step back in time. READ MORE   #artsandentertainment #piracy #northcarolina #shipwreck #shipwrecklaw #maritimeheritage #Pirates #NautilusProductions #Blackbeard #Documentary #StockFootage #Privateer #Archaeology #EdwardThache #copyright #QueenAnnesRevenge #FriendsofQAR #NCDNCR #BlackbeardsLaw #NCFilm #Blackbeard300 #IntellectualProperty #lawsuit #SovereignImmunity #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt #OuterBanks #ourflagmeansdeath  

Blackbeard Copyright Lawsuit Sails Forward in NC! North Carolina’s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources received a stern reminder that those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. The lesson came on Friday, August 30, from Judge Terrence Boyle, in a lawsuit involving DNCR’s repeated piracy of documentary footage created by videographer Rick Allen:   unique underwater images of Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Judge Boyle’s ruling allows Allen to proceed with his claims against DNCR. “Allen has plausibly stated a claim that the DNCR infringed on his copyrights. It is undisputed that Allen holds valid copyrights in the materials he alleges th[at] DNCR infringed… Allen provides detailed accounts of his copyrights and the DNCR's alleged infringements of specific copyrights by copying, displaying, distributing, and performing his works without permission online and in a state museum.” This isn’t the first time DNCR has faced liability for pira...

Pirate Haven Destroyed! June 7, 1692 (11:43 am): Known as a pirate haven and as "one of the wickedest places on Earth," Port Royal was, at the time, the unofficial capital of Jamaica and one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the Americas, as well as a common home port for many of the privateers and pirates operating on the Caribbean Sea. Two-thirds of the town, amounting to 33 acres, sank into the sea immediately after the main shock. According to Robert Renny in his An History of Jamaica (1807): "All the wharves sunk at once, and in the space of two minutes, nine-tenths of the city were covered with water, which was raised to such a height, that it entered the uppermost rooms of the few houses which were left standing. The tops of the highest houses were visible in the water and surrounded by the masts of vessels, which had been sunk along with them." Before the earthquake the town consisted of 6,500 inhabitants living in about 2,000 buildings, ma...