In a case that has garnered significant interest for its possible effect on thousands of works that the Pittsburgh-based Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has licensed across the globe, a federal appeals court has ruled that the famed artist did not make "fair use" of a photographer's copyrighted image of the iconic musician Prince.

The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, reversed a trial court decision in finding that Andy Warhol's famous series of 16 silkscreen works had infringed Lynn Goldsmith's copyright for her 1981 photograph portraying Prince in black and white. The ruling also fine-tuned the court's precedent relating to transformative works and cautioned trial judges to refrain from the role of art critic.