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Visitors stand in front of a logo of YouTube at the YouTube Space Tokyo, operated by Google, in Tokyo …
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(Reuters) - A
U.S. appeals court on Wednesday ordered Google Inc to remove from its
YouTube video-sharing website an anti-Islamic film that had sparked
protests across the Muslim world. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Google's
assertion that the removal of the film "Innocence of Muslims," amounted
to a prior restraint of speech that violated the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiff, Cindy Lee Garcia, had objected to the film after
learning that it incorporated a clip she had made for a different movie,
which had been partially dubbed and in which she appeared to be asking:
"Is your Mohammed a child molester?"
Representatives for Google could not immediately be reached for comment.
Cris Armenta, a lawyer for Garcia, said she is delighted with the decision.
"Ordering YouTube and Google to take down the film was the right thing
to do," Armenta said in an email. "The propaganda film differs so
radically from anything that Ms. Garcia could have imagined when the
director told her that she was being cast in the innocent adventure
film."
The controversial film, billed as a film trailer, depicted
the Prophet Mohammed as a fool and a sexual deviant. It sparked a
torrent of anti-American unrest among Muslims in Egypt, Libya and other
countries in 2012.
That outbreak coincided with an attack on U.S.
diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including
the U.S. ambassador to Libya. U.S. and other foreign embassies were
also stormed in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is considered blasphemous.
Google had refused to remove the film from YouTube, despite pressure
from the White House and others, though it blocked the trailer in Egypt,
Libya and certain other countries.
Garcia had claimed that her performance within the film was
independently copyrightable and that she retained an interest in that
copyright. A lower court had refused her request that Google remove the
film from YouTube.
But in
Wednesday's decision, 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said Garcia
was likely to prevail on her copyright claim and having already faced
"serious threats against her life," faced irreparable harm absent an
injunction.
He called it a
rare and troubling case, given how Garcia had been duped. "It's
disappointing, though perhaps not surprising, that Garcia needed to sue
in order to protect herself and her rights," he wrote.
The case Garcia vs. Google Inc et al., 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-57302.
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