Appeals Court Nixes Blackbeard Ship Copyright Suit Revival (1)

A videographer’s re-worked lawsuit against the state of North Carolina over his copyrighted footage of Blackbeard’s pirate ship impermissibly relies on new arguments raised far too late, the Fourth Circuit said.

Frederick Allen should have raised his alternate constitutional theory before the US Supreme Court shot down his other theory in 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Friday. The decision reverses a 2021 lower court ruling allowing Allen to amend the complaint and renders moot a 2024 finding that he could pursue his claim that the state violated the US Constitution’s “takings clause.”

The precedential ...