On March 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court held that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement, finding that Congress lacks authority to reverse a state’s sovereign immunity under the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA) of 1990.
The copyright infringement dispute began in December 2015, when videographer Frederick Allen alleged that the state of North Carolina used his copyrighted photographs and videos of the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck for tourism-related marketing on the state’s website, newsletters, and other media communications.
