Big Law
The Supreme Court Hears an Andy Warhol Copyright Case
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in one of the most important copyright cases in recent years.
On March 25, the Court agreed to consider whether Andy Warhol’s “Prince Series” of prints, based on a 1981 photograph of the late musical artist Prince by Lynn Goldsmith, is “transformative” enough to qualify for the Copyright Act’s fair use defense.
The photographer, Lynn Goldsmith took photos of Prince in 1981, early in his career. In 1984, she licensed the photos to Vanity Fair magazine as reference art for an illustration for an article about Prince.
