The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed itself by finding that actor Cindy Lee Garcia could not force Google to remove a controversial video “Innocence of Muslims” from YouTube. Garcia was upset with the message of the film and death threats she received after trailers of the film were released. (Hollywood Reporter, May 18, 2015, by Eriq Gardner)
Garcia claimed that her five second scene was manipulated in violation of her copyright, but in fact the U.S. Copyright office rejected Garcia’s application to copyright her role. Judge Margaret McKeown wrote for the majority, “The appeal teaches a simple lesson—a weak copyright claim cannot justify censorship in the guise of authorship.” And in a separate opinion, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that there should never have been a hold on the film, “By leaving in place the panel’s unprecedented gag order for well over a year, we surrendered to the threats of religious extremists who were offended by the film. For a United States court to do so was anathema to the principles underlying the First Amendment. It is remarkable that this late in our history we have still not learned that the First Amendment prohibits us from banning free speech in order to appease terrorists, religious or otherwise, even in response to their threats of violence.”(Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 18, 2015, by Corynne McSherry)