In March 2020, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court
ruling held that Congress lacked authority to abrogate state’s sovereign immunity from infringement suits in the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (CRCA).
When Congress passed the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act, it was responding to pressure from filmmakers like Rick Allen – as well as movie studios, software companies, and many other IP stakeholders – who said states were abusing sovereign immunity to avoid paying licensing fees.
An underwater videographer, Allen sued the State of North Carolina when he’d learned it was using his exclusive footage showing the wreckage of Blackbeard’s flagship vessel without his permission. “I think what was frustrating for me is that as an intellectual property holder, I followed every statute and law that was required of me,” Allen said on an episode of CCC's Beyond the Book podcast.
The Copyright Alliance is now urging IP owners to make their views known to an ongoing US Copyright Office study on the subject, explains Alliance president and CEO Keith Kupferschmid. “Under this holding, states cannot be liable for infringing the work of another copyright owner, but they can sue you if you were to infringe their copyrighted work. There’s really an inequity."
Also see:
https://beyondthebookcast.com/are-state-governments-copyright-pirates/
https://www.selling-stock.com/Article/states-can-use-your-copyrighted-photos-for-fr