Google forced to remove Innocence of Muslims

DMCA Solutions Victory FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 26, 2014 LOS ANGELES – On February 26, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down a stunning, David versus Goliath, victory in the long-running struggle of California actress Cindy Lee Garcia to force Google and YouTube to remove the hate-filled propaganda film The Innocence of Muslims from the YouTube platform. The basis of Ms. Garcia’s lawsuit is that Google and YouTube, along with “director” Nakoula Basseley Nakoula a/k/a “Sam Bacile” and many other aliases, violated the copyright that she holds in her theatrical performance in the film. The opinion was authored by the Honorable Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, and is attached to this release. Mr. Nakoula obtained Ms. Garcia’s agreement to appear in the film through fraud: to wit, he falsely represented to her that she would be appearing in an apolitical historical adventure film titled Desert Warriors. After Ms. Garcia delivered her performance, Mr. Nakoula and/or his associates dubbed over her footage to give the appearance that Ms. Garcia had made incendiary accusations against Mohammed, the founder of the Islamic religion—when in fact, she had not. After the filmmakers hosted the film on YouTube, which is owned by Google, Ms. Garcia became the object of a fatwa, and indeed, continued to receive death threats. Shockingly, Google and YouTube said that Ms. Garcia was to blame for the threats to her life because her lawsuit to have the film removed from YouTube sparked publicity—an argument that the Ninth Circuit deemed “preposterous.” “We are delighted that the Ninth Circuit has recognized the significant threat to Cindy Lee Garcia’s life and safety caused by Google and YouTube’s refusal to remove the propaganda film Innocence of Muslims from the YouTube platform after Ms. Garcia made… read more →