14 DAY TRIAL // The 13-minute “Innocence of Muslims” movie has sparked a lot of controversy all over the world. Physical protests have taken place and hacktivists have attacked numerous websites – including the ones of US banks -, but nothing could get YouTube to remove the clip.
Cindy Lee Garcia, an actress who appeared in the film, received death threats and even lost her job because of it, which is why she is trying to convince Google to take the clip down.
The initial lawsuit she filed was dismissed because the judge didn’t find any legal grounds to have the video removed.
Now, Garcia has filed a second lawsuit, claiming that the “she has properly applied to register, and she owns and controls the copyright in her performance.”
According to court documents, she is accusing the director, via YouTube, of unlawfully distributing her copyrighted performance. The complaint alleges that “YouTube is directly liable for these acts of infringement under the Copyright Act.”
In the second cause of action, Garcia claims that YouTube users have infringed “and continue to infringe” her copyright by distributing and reproducing the film through the video sharing website.
However, a Las Vegas copyright attorney told Wired that this second case might also be dismissed because if there was no contractual agreement, the director of the movie owned the copyright by default.
Garcia claims that she agreed to play in a movie called “Desert Warrior” and had no idea that it would have anything to do with the Prophet Mohammed. Furthermore, the actress stated that she was not aware that the film would include religious or adult content.
Although her agent sent YouTube five DMCA takedown notices, the video sharing website decided not to remove it because it didn’t violate any of the Terms of Services.