In Andy Warhol Foundation for The Visual Arts v. Goldsmith, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit considered whether a series of silkscreen prints and pencil illustrations created by famed artist Andy Warhol, based on a 1981 photograph taken by Lynn Goldsmith of musical artist Prince, was subject to the fair use doctrine and therefore did not infringe Goldsmith’s copyright. Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch authored the unanimous opinion of the panel, in which Circuit Judges Dennis Jacobs and Richard Sullivan each separately wrote a concurrence.

The Second Circuit held that the district court erred in its assessment and application of statutory fair use factors, and that the Prince Series did not qualify as a fair use of Goldsmith’s photograph of Prince, which was substantially similar to the Prince Series. Notably, the court “clarifi[ed]” its controversial 2013 Cariou v. Prince decision and walked back what many critics, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, viewed as an overbroad application of fair use.

Warhol’s Prince Series and the 1981 Photograph

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]