GARCIA v. GOOGLE, INC.

No. 12-57302.

786 F.3d 733 (2015)

Cindy Lee GARCIA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GOOGLE, INC., a Delaware Corporation; YouTube, LLC, a California limited liability company, Defendants-Appellees, and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an individual, aka Sam Bacile; Mark Basseley Youssef; Abanob Basseley Nakoula; Matthew Nekola; Ahmed Hamdy; Amal Nada; Daniel K. Caresman; Kritbag Difrat; Sobhi Bushra; Robert Bacily; Nicola Bacily; Thomas J. Tanas; Erwin Salameh; Yousseff M. Basseley; Malid Ahlawi, Defendants.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Filed May 18, 2015.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

M. Cris Armenta, The Armenta Law Firm ACP, Los Angeles, CA; Credence Sol,   La Garenne, Chauvigng, France; and Jason Armstrong, Bozeman, MT, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Neal Kumar Katyal,   Christopher T. Handman,   Dominic F. Perella, and Sean Marotta, Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP, Washington, D.C.; and Timothy Alger and Sunita Bali, Perkins Coie LLP, Palo Alto, CA, for Defendants-Appellees Google, Inc. and YouTube LLC.

Michael H. Page and Joseph C. Gratz, Durie Tangrie LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Amicus Curiae Netflix, Inc.

Christopher Jon Sprigman, New York University School of Law, New York, N.Y.; Christopher Newman, George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, VA; and Jennifer S. Grannick, Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA, for Amici Curiae Professors of Intellectual Property.

Matt Schruers, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae Computer & Communications Industry Association.

Corynne McSherry and Vera Ranieri, Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, CA; Lee Rowland and Brian Hauss, American Civil Liberties Union, New York, N.Y.; Sherwin Siy and John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge, Washington, D.C.; Art Neill and Teri Karobonik, New Media Rights, San Diego, CA; Erik Stallman, Center for Democracy & Technology, Washington, D.C.; and Jonathan Band, Jonathan Band PLLC of Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, Public Knowledge, Center for Democracy and Technology, New Media Rights, American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, and Association of Research Libraries.

Catherine R. Gellis, Sausalito, CA, for Amici Curiae Floor 64, Inc., and Organization for Transformative Works.

Christopher S. Reeder, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, Los Angeles, CA; David Leichtman and Michael A. Kolcun, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, New York, N.Y.; and Kathryn Wagner,   Stacy Lefkowitz, and Kristine Hsu, New York, N.Y., for Amicus Curiae Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Inc.

Andrew P. Bridges,   David L. Hayes,   Kathryn J. Fritz, and Todd R. Gregorian, Fenwick & West LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Amici Curiae Adobe Systems, Inc., Automattic, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Gawker Media, LLC, IAC/Interactive Corp., Kickstarter, Inc., Pinterest, Inc., Tumblr, Inc., and Twitter, Inc.

Venkat Balasubramani, Focal PLLC, Seattle, WA; Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University School of Law, Santa Clara, CA, for Amici Curiae Internet Law Professors.

Gary L. Bostwick, Bostwick Law, Los Angeles, CA; Jack I. Lerner, UCI Intell. Prop., Arts & Tech. Clinic, Irvine, CA; Michael C. Donaldson, Donaldson + Callif, LLP, Beverly Hills, CA; Lincoln D. Bandlow, Lanthrop & Gage LLP, Los Angeles, CA; and Rom Bar-Nissim, Los Angeles, CA, for Amici Curiae International Documentary Association, Film Independent, Fredrik Gertten and Morgan Spurlock.

Kelli L. Sager,   Dan Laidman and Brendan N. Charney, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for Amici Curiae Los Angeles Times Communications LLC; The E.W. Scripps Company; Advance Publications, Inc.; The New York Times Company; The Washington Post; the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; National Public Radio, Inc.; the National Press Photographers Association; the California Newspaper Publishers Association; and the First Amendment Coalition.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Danielle S. Van Lier, SAG-AFTRA, Los Angeles, CA; Thomas R. Carpenter, Actors' Equity Association, New York, N.Y.; Jennifer P. Garner, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, New York, N.Y.; Dominick Luquer, International Federation of Actors, Brussels, Belgium; and Elichai Shaffir, Counsel for Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists, Toronto, Ontario, for Amici Curiae Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists; Actors' Equity Association; American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada; International Federation of Actors; Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists; Equity UK; Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance-Equity Division (Australia & New Zealand); and South African Guild of Actors.

Paul Alan Levy and Scott Michelman, Public Citizen Litigation Group, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae Public Citizen.

Justin Hughes, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA, for Amici Curiae Professors Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Justin Hughes, Pete Menell, and David Nimmer.

Opinion by Judge McKEOWN; Concurrence by Judge WATFORD; Dissent by Judge KOZINSKI.


OPINION

In this case, a heartfelt plea for personal protection is juxtaposed with the limits of copyright law and fundamental principles of free speech. The appeal teaches a simple lesson — a weak copyright claim cannot justify censorship in the guise of authorship.

By all accounts, Cindy Lee Garcia...

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