Judge Denies Actress' Request To Force YouTube To Remove Anti-Muslim Film
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — A judge denied a request Thursday made on behalf of actress Cindy Lee Garcia to issue a restraining order forcing YouTube to remove an anti-Muslim film blamed for causing riots in the Middle East.
KNX 1070's Pete Demetriou reports Judge Luis Lavin rejected the request from the actress, who appears in the clip, in part because the man behind the film was not served with a copy of the lawsuit.
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Garcia said she and her family have been threatened and her career damaged since the 14-minute trailer for "Innocence of Muslims" surfaced.
"Emotionally, I am very disturbed," Garcia said in a news conference before heading into court Thursday. "My whole life has been turned upside down in every aspect."
Garcia, who filed the lawsuit Wednesday, said she was duped by the man behind the clip and that neither anti-Muslim content nor the name of Prophet Muhammad were mentioned in the script for the film she thought she was making.
"I think it's demoralizing, degrading," she said of the film. "I think it needs to come off."
"The film is vile and reprehensible," Garcia's attorney, M. Cris Armenta, wrote in the complaint. "This lawsuit is not an attack on the First Amendment nor on the right of Americans to say what they think, but does request that the offending content be removed from the Internet."
YouTube has refused Garcia's requests to remove the film, according to the lawsuit. The complaint contends that keeping it online violates her right of publicity, invades her privacy rights and the post-filming dialogue changes cast her in a false light. "(Garcia) had a legally protected interest in her privacy and the right to be free from having hateful words put in her mouth or being depicted as a bigot," the lawsuit states.
It is unclear who uploaded the trailer to the site. The clip has been linked to protests that have killed at least 30 people in seven countries, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man behind the trailer, has gone into hiding.
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