“This lawsuit is about Piracy, Greed and Revenge.” So opens Rick Allen’s amended complaint against the State of North Carolina for effectively injecting his copyrighted video footage into the public domain. Yet, now, North Carolina attempts to end the case by repealing “Blackbeard’s Law,” the statute at the heart of the controversy. NSU's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines the long and complex history of this highly unusual case, and the legal theories behind when copyright infringement becomes an “unlawful taking” prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.
![Pirate](http://copyright.nova.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Pirate-125x70.jpg)