Google-owned YouTube is urging a federal appeals court to allow it to re-post the inflammatory “Innocence of Muslims” video pending its appeal of an unprecedented censorship order issued by the court, arguing that it and the public will otherwise “suffer irreparable harm to First Amendment and other constitutional freedoms” while waiting for a renewed appeal to be heard.
The Mountain View, California-based operator of the world’s most popular video-sharing site told that to a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Wednesday ordered Google to take down the video, which had sparked violent protests throughout the Muslim world in 2012.
A woman who was in the film, Cindy Lee Garcia, had asked a federal judge to order the removal of the film because she said she was fired from her job, received death threats and was tricked into starring in the “hateful anti-Islamic production.” Garcia, of California, believed she would be starring in an Arabian desert adventure film, according to her suit. But the 14-minute YouTube trailer produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula of Southern California portrays a different story — one of which she appears for five seconds in the film and asks: “is your Mohammed a child molester?”
A lower court in 2012 sided against the woman, and she appealed. Ruling 2-1, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Garcia’s performance was independently copyrightable — an unprecedented decision that turns decades of copyright law on its head.
The White House had asked YouTube to review the footage to ensure that it comported with the media giant’s terms of service. YouTube did not remove it from U.S.-based viewers. However, YouTube has blocked the film in Egypt, Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
Google, in its late Thursday filing with the appeals court, urged a stay of the decision so it could republish the film while it asks a larger panel of the same circuit to revisit the decision. Google said the decision went way beyond even what Garcia was demanding.
“[T]he Order imposes a restraint on Google that is broader than anything Ms. Garcia has even requested,” Google lawyer Neil Katyal wrote the appeals court in its emergency petition. “Ms. Garcia asked only that the five seconds of footage in which she appeared be removed from Google’s websites.”
The woman’s attorney, Cris Armenta, hailed the court’s ruling.
“Ordering YouTube and Google to take down the film was the right thing to do,” she said. “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 appeals court did not immediately rule on Google’s emergency motion.
Google Files Emergency Motion To Restore Anti-Muslim YouTube Video
