Google, YouTube win anti-Muslim video fight
Appeals court says blocking it violates free speech
Weighing into a case fraught with controversy, a federal appeals court on Monday rejected a Hollywood actress’s bid to force Google-owned YouTube to take down an anti-Muslim video that sparked worldwide protests, finding that such an order tramples on free speech rights.
Reversing a previous ruling, a special 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments raised by Cindy Lee Garcia, who pressed her legal fight as a result of death threats she received after she was unwittingly spliced into a 2012 film clip that cast her as disparaging the prophet Muhammad in the “Innocence of Muslims” video. The court backed Google and other Internet companies, with only Judge Alex Kozinski dissenting.
“In this case, a heartfelt plea for personal protection is juxtaposed with the limits of copyright law and fundamental principles of free speech,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote for the court. “The appeal teaches a simple lesson – a weak copyright claim cannot justify censorship in the guise of authorship.”
A divided three-judge 9th Circuit panel last year backed Garcia’s arguments, based on violations of federal copyright law, that she was duped into a performance that resulted in unrelenting death threats. The court’s order requiring YouTube to take down the film remained intact while the legal showdown unfolded. But the 9th Circuit’s ruling Monday takes that order off the books.
The removal order provoked widespread criticism from the online world, legal academics, media organizations and companies ranging from Twitter and Facebook to Netflix. They warned of apocalyptic consequences for Internet content providers if Garcia prevailed, calling the order to remove the film “alarming.”
These Internet giants argued that the ruling carved out unprecedented copyright protections for actors with even a bit role in every movie or video produced, at the same time allowing the courts to force companies such as YouTube to take down material protected by the First Amendment while vastly expanding their responsibility for policing Web content.