When Is An Actor An Author? - May 26, 2015

A recent decision of a full panel of judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit has found that an actor could not claim a copyright interest in his or her performance in a film.

In our newsletter of April 2, 2014 we dealt with the decision in the First Appeal in this case. Click here for the article.

The Facts

In substance, a rogue movie producer transformed the plaintiff's five second acting performance for a film entitled "Dessert Warrior" into part of a blasphemous video proclamation against the prophet Mohammed entitled the "Innocence of Muslims". The film was credited as a source of violence in the Middle East and the plaintiff received death threats. A 2013 New York Times investigation found that the film partially contributed to the September 2012 outburst of violence of Benghazi in which a number of Americans including the U.S. Ambassador were killed.