• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, December 26, 2012

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia is asking a federal appellate court to order YouTube to take down a 14-minute trailer for the film "Innocence of Muslims."

Garcia -- who says she was duped into appearing in the film -- argues that she owns a copyright interest in her performance and that YouTube infringes her copyright by displaying the clip over her objection. Last month, she asked a federal judge to issue an injunction requiring the video-sharing service to take down the clip.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Fitzgerald in the Central District of California rejected Garcia's arguments, ruling that she doesn't appear to actually own a copyright interest in the clip. He said that even if Garcia at one time had a copyright in her performance, she had assigned it to the film's author.

Garcia late last week appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court ordered her to file papers fleshing out her argument by Jan. 18.

Garcia says she was cast in "Innocence of Muslims" after answering a Backstage ad for a film called "Desert Warrior," which she thought was an adventure movie set in ancient Egypt.

She says she has received death threats since the film was posted to YouTube, and that she lost her job due to security concerns sparked by her appearance in the movie. Online clips from the film triggered protests in the Mideast in September.

She previously asked a state court judge to order the clip removed on the grounds that it violates her right to control the commercial use of her image. That request was denied in September.