Lawyer: Free speech at stake in anti-Muslim film
A lawyer for Google has told a federal appeals court that free speech is in jeopardy if a ruling stands forcing it to keep an anti-Muslim film off its YouTube service.
Attorney Neal Katyal told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena on Monday 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 sparked violence in the Middle East.
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.
