Case: 12-57302, 05/18/2015, ID: 9540348, DktEntry: 197-1, Page 28 of 42
28
GARCIA V. GOOGLE
was translated into Arabic and sparked death threats against
her. But that proves the point: the gravamen of Garcia’s harm
is untethered from her commercial interests as a performer,
and instead focuses on the personal pain caused by her
association with the film.
The district court did not abuse its discretion in
determining that Garcia failed to muster a clear showing of
irreparable harm. See Flexible Lifeline Sys., Inc. v. Precision
Lift, Inc., 654 F.3d 989, 999–1000 (9th Cir. 2011) (“Harm
must be proved, not presumed.” (quoting 4 Nimmer on
Copyright § 14.06[A][5])).
In the face of a doubtful copyright claim and the absence
of irreparable harm to Garcia’s interests as an author, we need
not consider the final two Winter factors, the balance of
equities and public interest.
II. THE PANEL’S INJUNCTION
In February 2014, the panel majority issued the following
injunction: “Google, Inc. shall take down all copies of
‘Innocence of Muslims’ from YouTube.com and from any
other platforms under Google’s control, and take all
reasonable steps to prevent further uploads of ‘Innocence of
Muslims’ to those platforms.” Soon after, the panel amended
the order to state that the prohibition did “not preclude the
posting or display of any version of ‘Innocence of Muslims’
that does not include Cindy Lee Garcia’s performance.”
Although the first order was more sweeping, the second
cast the court in the uneasy role of film editor. The
amendment only mattered if Google assumed authority to
change the content of someone else’s copyrighted film. To
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents