Paul Elias
Associated Press
San Francisco's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered YouTube to take down an anti-Muslim film that sparked widespread riots in 2012 and prompted clerics to call for the death of an American actress whose image appeared in the movie without her permission.
The Wednesday decision by a divided three-judge appeals panel reinstated a lawsuit filed against YouTube by the actress who appeared briefly in the film, which included a highly negative portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
YouTube resisted calls by President Barack Obama and other world leaders to take down the video, arguing that to do so amounted to unwarranted government censorship and would violate the Google-owned company's free-speech protections. Besides, the company argued that the filmmakers and not the actors of "Innocence of Muslims" owned the copyright and only they could remove it from YouTube.
And typically that's the case with the vast majority of clips posted on YouTube — and Hollywood in general — that don't violate decency laws and policies. But the 9th Circuit said Wednesday that this case was far from typical and that the actress, Cindy Lee Garcia, retained a copyright claim that YouTube must respect. That's because she believed she was acting in a different production than the one that ultimately appeared online.