Thursday, 27 September 2012

Innocence of Muslims Actress Files Lawsuit in Federal Court

Cindy Lee Garcia, screengrab

Innocence of Muslims actress Cindy Lee Garcia isn't backing down from her fight against the movie's filmmaker.
Just a week after an L.A. judge denied Garcia's emergency request to pull the controversial movie down from the Internet, the actress refilled her case in federal court Wednesday, according to the Hollywood Reporter, this time tacking on more claims to her suit, which previously included unfair business practices, fraud and libel.
So, what's different this time?
Garcia added copyright claims to the case, is suing the hundreds of people who reposted the video on YouTube, and is also asserting that YouTube cannot "lean on the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Act [to show the video] because it failed to remove the video at the behest of a copyright owner," THR reports.
This type of case isn't typical for the entertainment industry, because actors generally sign release forms that make filmmakers harmless from claims like libel. 
But Garcia's attorney says she never signed a release form.  
"It was a slipshod production," Cris Armenta told the mag. "She didn't assign copyright. We spoke to six actors [in the film] and their reps and nobody has come up with something like that. The only thing [Garcia] signed was that she would receive IMDb credits." 
Now that Garcia has filed the case in federal court, she will have to show why acting performances are copyrightable in order to win.
And it looks like she's already taken the first step to prove it.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Armenta registered Garcia's performance at the U.S. Copyright Office, noting that the performance was not a work-made-for-hire.
Armenta recently told E! News Garcia filed her original lawsuit and request for injunction because "she wants to clear her name. She has been the subject of death threats. She did not consent to use her image or likeness in this type of production."

Source - E! Online

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