Nautilus Productions

Nautilus has produced several documentaries, including The Kill Zone for the National Geographic International Channel; Assault on America: The Battle for Torpedo Junction for the Canadian History Channel; and the Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck for Texas A&M University; BOEM; and the Louisiana State Museum. Above the water Nautilus spent seven years covering NASCAR for Office Depot and also worked with Bob Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, on a piece for CBS 60 Minutes.

Nautilus Productions is also the owner and licensor of stock footage from the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project. Nautilus documented the shipwreck recovery for nearly two decades and many documentaries created about the pirate Blackbeard and the Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project have incorporated project videographer Rick Allen's stock footage or video in their content.

In 2000, Nautilus Productions co-produced with Bill Lovin of Marine Grafics, a week-long live internet broadcast known as QAR DiveLive from the Blackbeard wreck site and the Queen Anne's Revenge conservation lab. At the time, this was the first live video and audio broadcast from an underwater archaeological site to the World Wide Web. Students were able to watch the underwater archaeology in real time, virtually visit the lab and ask questions of the scientists exploring the shipwreck. The twice-daily live distance learning programs reached students from as far away as Canada during the five days of broadcasting. In October 2001 Allen and Lovin again co-produced the QAR DiveLive 2001 webcasts with similar success.

Other projects include videography on the USS Monitor and HMCS Canada (Queen of Nassau) with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the recovery of a World War II era B-25C Mitchell bomber from Lake Murray, SC for the Mega Movers series on the History Channel, and the SS Commodore, made famous in author Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat".

• Lights, Camera ... Shipwreck!?! Multimedia at Four Thousand Feet. Kimberly L. Faulk and Rick Allen, Historical Archaeology, Vol. 51, Issue 3, The Mardi Gras Shipwreck: The Archaeology of an Early Nineteenth-Century Wooden-Hulled Sailing Ship, September 2017, pp. 418–424.

In 2013 and 2015, the state government of North Carolina uploaded Nautilus Productions videos of the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge to its website without permission. As a result, Nautilus filed suit in federal court over copyright violations and the passage of "Blackbeard's Law" by the North Carolina legislature.{{cite web |title=Allen v Cooper, et al. |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/18-877.html |website=Supreme Court of the United States |access-date=22 June 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Gresko |first1=Jessica |title=High court will hear copyright dispute involving pirate ship |url=https://www.apnews.com/bc8c92c2c8b449158537c356a44cf757 |access-date=22 June 2019 |publisher=Associated Press |date=3 June 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Wolverton |first1=Paul |title=Pirate ship lawsuit from Fayetteville goes to Supreme Court on Tuesday |url=https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20191102/pirate-ship-lawsuit-from-fayetteville-goes-to-supreme-court-on-tuesday |access-date=2 November 2019 |publisher=Fayetteville Observer |date=2 November 2019}} Before posting the videos the North Carolina Legislature passed "Blackbeard's Law", N.C. General Statute §121-25(b),{{cite web |title=§ 121-25. License to conduct exploration, recovery or salvage operations. |url=https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_121/GS_121-25.pdf |website=ncleg.gov |publisher=North Carolina |access-date=25 May 2023}} which stated, "All photographs, video recordings, or other documentary materials of a derelict vessel or shipwreck or its contents, relics, artifacts, or historic materials in the custody of any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions shall be a public record pursuant to Chapter 132 of the General Statutes."

On November 5, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Allen v. Cooper.{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Brian |title=How Blackbeard's ship and a diver with an 'iron hand' ended up at the Supreme Court |url=https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article237019034.html |access-date=16 November 2019 |publisher=Charlotte Observer |date=5 November 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Wolf |first1=Richard |title=Aarrr, matey! Supreme Court justices frown on state's public display of pirate ship's salvage operation |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/05/legendary-pirate-blackbeards-shipwreck-sails-supreme-court/4166346002/ |access-date=27 December 2019|work=USA Today |date=5 November 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Livni |first1=Ephrat |title=A Supreme Court piracy case involving Blackbeard proves truth is stranger than fiction |url=https://qz.com/1742690/scotus-piracy-case-involving-blackbeard-is-stranger-than-fiction/ |access-date=27 December 2019 |publisher=Quartz |date=5 November 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Woolverton |first1=Paul |title=Supreme Court justices skeptical in Blackbeard pirate ship case from Fayetteville |url=https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20191105/supreme-court-justices-skeptical-in-blackbeard-pirate-ship-case-from-fayetteville |access-date=27 December 2019 |publisher=Fayetteville Observer |date=5 November 2019}} On March 23, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of North Carolina and struck down the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act, which Congress passed in 1989 to attempt to curb such infringements of copyright by states.{{cite web |title=N.C. Gen Stat §121-25 |url=https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_121/GS_121-25.pdf |website=NCleg.gov |publisher=North Carolina |access-date=19 June 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Adler |first1=Adam |title=Blackbeard Just Broke Copyright Law, and Now States Are the Pirates |url=https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/blackbeard-copyright-law-states-rights-north-carolina-supreme-court/ |access-date=19 June 2020 |publisher=The Escapist |date=29 March 2020}}{{cite court|litigants=Allen v. Cooper|url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-877_dc8f.pdf}}

As a result of the ruling Nautilus filed a motion for reconsideration in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.{{cite news |last1=McKlveen |first1=Gina |title=A North Carolina Filmmaker Continues to Challenge State Sovereign Immunity |url=https://ial.uk.com/a-north-carolina-filmmaker-continues-to-challenge-state-sovereign-immunity/ |access-date=24 March 2023 |publisher=Institute of Art & Law |date=28 October 2022}} On August 18, 2021 Judge Terrence Boyle granted the motion for reconsideration which North Carolina promptly appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.{{cite web |title=Reconsideration Granted |url=https://www.nautilusproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Doc.118.Reconsideration-granted.pdf |website=Nautilus Productions |access-date=5 April 2023}} The 4th Circuit denied the state's motion on October 14, 2022.{{cite web |title=4th Circuit Recon |url=http://www.nautilusproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4th-Circuit-Recon.pdf |website=Nautilus Productions |access-date=5 April 2023}} Nautilus then filed their second amended complaint on February 8, 2023 alleging 5th and 14th Amendment violations of Nautilus' constitutional rights, additional copyright violations, and claiming that North Carolina's "Blackbeard's Law" represents a Bill of Attainder.{{cite web |title=PLAINTIFFS' SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT |url=https://ipwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/134-main.pdf |website=IPWatchdog |access-date=24 March 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Barnes |first1=Greg |title=Fayetteville's Blackbeard shipwreck filmmaker fires back in new court case |url=https://www.cityviewnc.com/stories/fayettevilles-blackbeard-shipwreck-filmmaker-fires-back-in-new-court-case,29512 |access-date=24 March 2023 |publisher=CityView |date=14 February 2023}}

Eight years after the passage of Blackbeard's Law, on June 30, 2023, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill repealing the law.{{cite web |title=AN ACT TO MAKE VARIOUS CHANGES TO THE STATUTES GOVERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES, AS RECOMMENDED BY THE DEPARTMENT |url=https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/PDF/H168v6.pdf |website=ncleg.gov |publisher=North Carolina |access-date=21 July 2023}}

{{reflist |30em |refs=

{{cite web |title=Lake Murray's Mitchell |url=http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/lake-murrays-mitchell-14033140/?no-ist |first=Kay |last=Gordon |date=January 2007 |website=Air & Space Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/handle/10342/1113 |title=And All the Men Knew the Colors of the Sea... : Historical and Archaeological Investigation of the SS Commodore's Remains, Ponce Inlet, Florida |last=Eslinger |first=Kimberly Lane |year=2005 |publisher=East Carolina University |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p249901coll22/id/695248 |title=Live from Morehead City, it's Queen Anne's Revenge |last1=Eslinger |first1=Kimberly |last2=Wilde-Ramsing |first2=Mark |date=June 2002 |publisher=North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources |format=pdf |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite journal |first1=Kimberly L |last1=Faulk |first2=Rick |last2=Allen |title=Lights, Camera ... Shipwreck!?! Multimedia at Four Thousand Feet |journal=Historical Archaeology |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=418–424 |date=September 2017 |doi=10.1007/s41636-017-0051-1|s2cid=164446605 }}

{{cite news |title=Apple, QuickTime help with underwater diving trip |first=Dennis |last=Sellers |url=http://www.macworld.com/article/1019428/quicktime.html |date=Oct 1, 2001 |publisher=Macworld |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://monitor.noaa.gov/expeditions/log072603.html |title=Monitor Expedition 2003 |date=July 26, 2003 |publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |title=Blackbeard's Glowing Shipwreck |url=http://www.p3update.com/events/67-lighting/blackbeard-s-glowing-shipwreck |first=John |last=Law |website=P3 Update Magazine |date=February 10, 2009 |access-date=May 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402173605/http://www.p3update.com/events/67-lighting/blackbeard-s-glowing-shipwreck |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |url-status=dead }}

{{cite web |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/handle/123456789/4739 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606130452/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/handle/123456789/4739 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 6, 2012 |title=A Ram Bow in the Keys: Latest findings from the Investigation of the Steamer Queen of Nassau |last=Casserley |first=T |year=2003 |publisher=American Academy of Underwater Sciences |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |title=QAR DiveLive Returns |url=https://dncr-qar.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/documents/files/Vol-1-No-3-Sep-2001.pdf |date=September 2001 |access-date=9 June 2017}}

{{cite web |title=Queen Anne's Revenge Fact Sheet |url=http://www.qaronline.org/Portals/3/Documents/QAR-Fact-Sheet.pdf |first=Fay |last=Henderson |date=March 21, 2014 |publisher=North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.qaronline.org/About/Partners.aspx |title=Queen Anne's Revenge Project Partners |publisher=North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources |year=2015 |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |title=Bob Ballard on 60 Minutes |url=http://web.uri.edu/quadangles/bob-ballard-on-60-minutes/ |date=January 7, 2010 |website=Quadangles Online |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://nautarch.tamu.edu/mardigras/Mardi_Gras_Shipwreck_Official_report.pdf |title=Archaeological Excavation of the Mardi Gras Shipwreck (16GM01), Gulf of Mexico Continental Slope |date=July 2008 |publisher=Texas A&M University |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

{{cite web |url=http://uwf.edu/anthropologyapp/mardigras/ |title=Mardi Gras Shipwreck |date=August 21, 2014 |work=University of West Florida |access-date=May 29, 2015 |archive-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150812065130/http://uwf.edu/anthropologyapp/mardigras/ |url-status=dead }}

{{cite news |title=Take an online journey to see Blackbeard's shipwreck |url=http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/148713/ |first=Tom |last=Lawrence |date=October 3, 2000 |agency=WRAL |access-date=May 29, 2015}}

}}

• {{IMDb name|2971671|Rick Allen}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJfU_bplRJU Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project Video]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiWitrf6LEw Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck Short]
• [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bob-ballard-the-great-explorer-25-11-2009/ Bob Ballard: The Great Explorer]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufneXQif1o SS Commodore Wreck Site]
• [http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/lake-murrays-mitchell-14033140/?no-ist Lake Murray's Mitchell]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150526172649/http://www.al.com/news/audio/flightwrap.mp3 Podcast: Southern Museum of Flight]
• [http://www.thestory.org/stories/2012-10/blackbeards-shipwreck-and-hook Podcast: Blackbeard's Shipwreck And The Hook]
• [http://www.wral.com/photographer-suing-state-over-blackbeard-shipwreck-footage-/15150138/ Photographer suing state over Blackbeard shipwreck footage] WRAL-TV
• [https://www.escapistmagazine.com/blackbeard-copyright-law-states-rights-north-carolina-supreme-court/ Blackbeard Just Broke Copyright Law, and Now States Are the Pirates] The Escapist
• [https://ipwatchdog.com/2023/02/23/allen-v-cooper-back-queen-annes-vengeance/id=156986/ Allen v. Cooper: Back with a (Queen Anne’s) Vengeance] IPWatchdog

{{Underwater diving|other}}

Category:Companies based in North Carolina

Category:Television production companies of the United States

Category:Underwater archaeology

Category:Stock photography

Category:Photography companies of the United States

Category:Mass media companies established in 1997

Category:Underwater diving companies