Social Media Law: ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Actress SUES You Tube Users and You Tube in Federal Court

I shared this case with you all last week but it gets even more interesting by the moment. THR,Esq. does an excellent job with the legal analysis and reporting so there is no need for me to go into much details here. Read excerpt below:

“Just when the controversy over Innocence of Muslims could hardly get more interesting, it has. The film already has set off riots in the Middle East and North Africa, free speech debates around the world and, after actress Cindy Lee Garcia sued the creators of the film and YouTube, a controversy over the rights of movie producers.

Garcia was unsuccessful last week in getting a California state court judge to order YouTube to take down the controversial film, but that hasn’t ended things. Garcia refiled her case in federal court Wednesday, asserting even more claims that she did the first time around, her lawyer says.

On top of fraud, unfair business practices and libel — among other causes of action — she’s now asserting copyright claims.

In doing so, Garcia aims to make some history. She wants to prove that actors are entitled to a piece of the copyright when “authoring” their performances on film. Further, she continues to fight YouTube, this time asserting that the video-sharing giant cannot lean on the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it failed to expeditiously remove the video at the behest of a copyright owner — namely, her.

And if all that isn’t sufficiently compelling, Garcia also is suing the individuals who have reposted the video on YouTube.

THR,Esq. has the full story.

-Uduak
@uduaklaw

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