The modern view of “fair use” owes much to the 1994 case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, in which the Supreme Court decided that 2 Live Crew's parody of Roy Orbison's “Oh, Pretty Woman” was transformative because it “was clearly intended to ridicule the white-bread original.” 

Describing Campbell as “often cited, rarely read,” Arent Fox partner Paul Fakler says that Cariou departs from that decision becasue the 2nd Circuit decided the question of “trandformativeness” as a matter of law rather than remanding. “The Supreme Court found this rap was a satire and was therefore transformative,” Fakler says. “The court didn't hold as a matter of law that it was fair use.”

The modern view of “fair use” owes much to the 1994 case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, in which the Supreme Court decided that 2 Live Crew's parody of Roy Orbison's “Oh, Pretty Woman” was transformative because it “was clearly intended to ridicule the white-bread original.” 

Describing Campbell as “often cited, rarely read,” Arent Fox partner Paul Fakler says that Cariou departs from that decision becasue the 2nd Circuit decided the question of “trandformativeness” as a matter of law rather than remanding. “The Supreme Court found this rap was a satire and was therefore transformative,” Fakler says. “The court didn't hold as a matter of law that it was fair use.”