LOS ANGELES : Judge Dismisses Holliday’s Suit Over King Videotape

The man who made the world’s most famous home video--the 90-second film showing white police beating black motorist Rodney G. King in March, 1991--was told by a judge Friday he could not sue television stations that showed his tape over and over again.

U.S. District Judge Irving Hill dismissed a suit by plumbing store manager George Holliday against four television networks and an independent Los Angeles television station that Holliday claimed used the tape without his permission. Holliday had sued ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN, plus station KTLA, for several million dollars, claiming infringement of copyright.

Hill’s decision included what he said was a precedent-setting ruling that the 1st Amendment created special protection for works of great social import, a protection the judge said superseded property rights.