Secret copyright interest decision on 'Innocence of Muslims' lawsuit will see removal of film on Google

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a ruling ordering Google to remove the film "Innocence of Muslims" from all of its platforms, including YouTube. The ruling was a response to complainant, film actress Cindy Lee Garcia, who asserted a copyright interest in her performance in the controversial movie.

Garcia filed a lawsuit against the search company insisting that the anti-Islamic film should be removed from the popular video service. In her lawsuit, Garcia argued that she has a copyright interest in her performance as she did not sign a release document, and that Google has a legal obligation to take the video off of YouTube after sending a notice.

However, 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski reversed an earlier ruling against Garcia's request, and wrote, "Just because Garcia isn't a joint author of Innocence of Muslims doesn't mean she doesn't have a copyright interest in her own performance within the film. Whether an individual who makes an independently copyrightable contribution to a joint work can retain a copyright interest in that contribution is a rarely litigated question. But nothing in the Copyright Act suggests that a copyright interest in a creative contribution to a work simply disappears because the contributor doesn't qualify as a joint author of the entire work."

The landmark ruling could case an avalanche of lawsuits regarding joint contributions on Hollywood creatives spanning from films, television shows and other visual content, The Hollywood Reporter said in a report. Aside from Hollywood, THR said that the decision could also create headaches for Internet service providers who will be performing most of the work taking down creative content in response to copyright takedown notices as the lawsuit determined that even individuals are now presumed to have a certain interest in copyrighted material.

Aside from scrubbing "Innocence of Muslims" off of its platforms, the appellate circuit also ordered both parties to remain silent about the case, THR said.

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Innocence of Muslims, Cindy Lee Garcia, Google Inc

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