A lawyer for Google told a federal appeals court Monday that free speech was in jeopardy if a ruling stood forcing it to keep an anti-Islam film off its YouTube service.
Attorney Neal Katyal told an 11-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena that copyright law is also at stake in a lawsuit brought by an actress who received death threats after a film trailer insulting the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) sparked violence in the Middle East.
A divided three-judge panel of the court ordered YouTube to pull the video in February after deciding actress Cindy Lee Garcia had a copyright claim to the low-budget “Innocence of Muslims” video because she believed she was appearing in a different production than the one that appeared.
Garcia was paid $500 for a movie called “Desert Warrior” she believed had nothing to do with religion, but ended up in a five-second scene in which her voice was dubbed over so her character asked controversial questions about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him).
The ruling will fragment copyright law and restrict free speech if it stands, Katyal said.