A recent U.S. case raises some interesting copyright issues
concerning the rights of actors who appear in a film.
The Facts
The plaintiff, an aspiring actress, answered a casting call for
a low-budget amateur film. The working title of the film was
"Desert Warrior" which was to be an adventure film set in
ancient Arabia. The writer and producer cast the plaintiff in a
minor role. She was given four pages of the script in which her
character appeared and paid approximately $500 for three and a half
days of filming. The producer did not obtain any formal assignment
of copyright or other applicable consent or waivers from the
plaintiff.
The "Desert Warrior" never materialized and instead,
the plaintiff's scene was used in an anti-Islamic film titled
the "Innocence of Muslims." The plaintiff first saw
the "Innocence of Muslims" after it was uploaded to
YouTube.com. She discovered that her performance had been partially
dubbed over so that she appeared to be asking
